


Licence to Kill

by orphan_account



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Blood, F/M, M/M, Post-Canon, Royal Spoilers, Tags May Change, Yaldy deal ending AU, but like... if you're here just for shumako content you may be disappointed, it just kinda happened by accident I'm sorry everyone, shuake, some shumako, spy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2020-12-14 12:21:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 36,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21015695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Three years after making a deal with Yaldabaoth, Ren’s life has gone from exciting thievery to the average and frankly quite boring life of a broke college student. Craving adventure, he goes to Mementos day in and day out but finds nothing there. College life and a society that didn't need reforming wasn’t going to satiate Ren’s need for an adrenaline rush, but a proposition from an old friend just might.





	1. Long Time No See

“Ren? Ren. It’s time to wake up,” a female voices over his dreams. Where the hell was she? There wasn’t anyone with him in this Palace. He came here alone, like he always did. Or, used to. Was it the Palace ruler? No, he’s fairly certain that was a man… or was it? Maybe it was a cat…? But how did a cat have a Palace? Maybe Morgana could have a Palace, he was sentient after all-

“Ren.”

Shaken awake, Ren sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes with the palm of his hand, “I’m up!” he announces, moving his hand away and waiting for his eyesight to adjust. The flower pattern on his sheets becomes clearer and clearer and soon enough he can see they all have petals and aren’t just random blobs of colour in front of him. The voice takes on a more familiar form too, and instead of being disembodied, Ren can actually turn to the person it belongs to while she puts on the clothes she left on the floor the night before, “Morning.”

“Good morning, Ren. You were talking in your sleep again,” Makoto says as she tries to straighten out her shirt. It wasn’t like this was a first and maybe they weren’t in a strict and exclusive relationship anymore but no matter how many times Ren told her it’d be more convenient, she still refused to bring some clothes over to his place to keep as spares, “You were particularly chatty last night as well,” she says and moves away from the mirror.

“Sorry if I kept you up,” Ren rubs at the back of his neck. He waits for her to tell him more about his chatting, but instead she leaves the bedroom and goes to his bathroom. Taking the opportunity, Ren finds his pyjama pants, puts them on and checks his phone. It’s 8:30, an hour before Makoto was meant to start class if Ren remembered her schedule correctly but two hours before his first class. Why did she even bother waking him up at all? He’d probably see her after class anyway and he wasn’t the best conversation partner this early on.

He slips out of bed and drags his feet across the floor, out of the room and right up to his coffee siphon- his high school graduation gift from Sojiro. He gets out the beans from his cupboard and begins grinding them at an extremely slow rate. Messages start popping up on his group chat as more and more of his friends wake up and respond to the messages sent the night before. He leans over to read them as they pop up on his phone.

> **Inari:** Ren, Makoto, did you get home safely?
> 
> **Inari:** Neither of you messaged us last night
> 
> **Illuminati:** Ye cos they were busy getting busy.
> 
> **Inari:** I don’t follow
> 
> **Inari:** That doesn’t make any sense
> 
> **Vulgar Ape:** tf do you mean?
> 
> **Kitty Woman:** I don’t think he knows what Futaba meant.
> 
> **Beauty Thief:** Futaba was just joking.
> 
> **Beauty Thief:** Ren and Makoto went home together.
> 
> **Vulgar Ape:** Again.
> 
> **Kitty Woman:** You don’t sound too happy about that.
> 
> **Vulgar Ape:** I mean… they can bang as much as they want idc
> 
> **Vulgar Ape:** But leaving me alone at the bar last night was not cool!
> 
> **Inari:** If you told me I would have come back for you
> 
> **Illuminati:** Aw cute!
> 
> **Shoulder Pads:** Yes, sorry everyone. Ren and I are fine.

With the beans done, he looks up to find Makoto typing up her next text while standing over him, make up done and hair brushed, “I won’t be staying long. I should go back to my place and pick up a few books. I’ll see you in Leblanc for lunch with everyone else, right?”

Ren nods and lifts up the grinded coffee beans, “Coffee?” He asks her but she shake her head. He goes about making a cup for himself, once more taking his time, “You said I talked in my sleep,” he tries to bring the topic back up in hopes that she remembered something more concrete, “Anything interesting?”

The sound of her nails hitting the glass screen stops for a brief second, but they quickly resume, “um… nothing in particular,” she says and walks to the door, “Anyway, like I said, I need to go-.”

“That didn’t sound like nothing,” Ren keeps trying without turning away from his coffee. It wasn’t like him looking at Makoto would convince her to tell him the truth anyway, “It was about the Phantom Thieves again, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” Makoto answers shortly, slipping her phone into her bag and grabbing the shoes she left around the floor of Ren’s apartment, “But I don’t have time to get into it right now… if you have time this evening, I can tell you more about it, okay?” She asks but Ren knows its code for trying to avoid the subject. Talking about the Phantom Thieves always led to arguing, and neither of them had the energy to go through that again.

Ren shakes his head, “No, it's fine, forget it. I’m working at Crossroads tonight anyway so I’ll be here fairly late,” he hears Makoto running around and collecting her things around his apartment while he pours himself some coffee, “I’m sorry I asked, I was just curious about it.” He switches everything off and finally turns around, “We’re good, right? In general, I mean?”

Makoto grabs her scarf off of his couch and ties it around her neck, “I don’t see why not. It was just a question, and it’s only natural you’re curious about what you might have said or done in your sleep.”

Ren opens his mouth to counter that, but considering it wasn’t what he meant, he shuts his mouth and smiles, “I, uh, I was talking about last night. But I see how you could’ve misinterpreted that… That ones on me.”

“It’s just sex, Ren,” Makoto shrugs and goes to the door, “We agreed that neither of us have time for a relationship right now, and maybe one day we could start doing stuff together again but for now…” she trails off but Ren knows what she means.

She was right. Being a third year in college was tough on her, and Ren himself had to juggle his time between college, his friends and two part time jobs. He also wasn’t in the mood to deal with more arguing about living in the past and being unable to let go. He already had that reminder in his head, he didn’t need someone else admitting it to his face, “So we are good,” Ren concludes, “Well, have fun, and I’ll see you at lunch.”

The keys jingle when Makoto turns them in order to open the door, and just before she leaves, she gives Ren a little wave, “See you,” she smiles and closes the door behind her, leaving Ren to stand around his quiet kitchen all by himself. To break the silence, he mutes the messages that keep popping up on his phone so he can avoid the drama unfolding on the group chat while he lets the news play.

“-two members of prime minister Shido’s cabinet were removed from office today after new evidence was brought forward about their involvement in a human trafficking ring. The prime ministers press secretary has come forward and claimed that Shido was unaware of these allegations and fired them as soon as the news was given to him. The police is currently investigating the source of this anonymous tip.”

Human trafficking? Ren hadn’t been to Mementos in about a month now but surely something like this would’ve popped up there a while ago? Maybe they were wrong. It was an anonymous source, and while Shido’s fate was still unclear to Ren, he knew the politician wasn’t dumb enough to keep someone around who could ruin his reputation even through rumours alone.

He keeps the news playing while he drinks his coffee, eats breakfast and goes about his daily routine. Nothing of interest comes up after that. The economy was doing okay, some idol tweeted out something she wasn’t meant to, someone said something dumb on tv, there’s a new crazy internet phenomenon that seemed way too basic to get this much hype. Everything was just as dull and the same as it had been over the last three years.

Ren should’ve seen this coming. Whether it was going to be circumstance or age, Ren would eventually have to stop being Joker, the last of the Phantom Thieves. Some cases still came up, but none of them posed a problem and everyone mostly fell in line. The last Palace he dealt with was one of a corrupt police commissioner last year and despite the man having a tearful breakdown in the middle of the precinct, it barely even made the local news.

No one cared about the Phantom Thieves anymore.

Even the Phantom Thieves themselves gave up the game a long time ago. Futaba started school and had to focus on catching up on the year she missed. Haru had to take care of Okumura Foods and act as the heiress she truly was. Makoto got into the college of her dreams and needed to focus on getting a law degree. Ann was constantly busy with photoshoots. Ryuji decided to get his grades up so he could go to college with everyone else and Yusuke needed to keep working on his art if he wanted any sort of scholarship for art school. Even Morgana eventually preferred to lounge around the café instead of helping out Ren with fairly simple missions.

Being a Thief stopped being glamorous, and with that, all the excitement was gone.

What was the point of reforming a society that didn’t want to be reformed?

Ren switches off the news and switches to his playlist so he could listen to some music and turn his brain off. Anything to keep his mind from wandering too far. The music app suggests some popular boy band he heard Ann talking about once, so he puts on their music without even knowing if it’s good or not while he gets dressed. There’s still an hour to go before classes but sitting alone with nothing to do was just going to drive him crazy. If he could get a spot in the library maybe he could get ahead in his reading.

Hopefully this time the topic would be somewhat more interesting than the previous one.

* * *

After one of the longest two hours of his life, Ren gets on a train headed to Yongen-Jaya for his lunch break. Statistics weren’t even that hard but having the most monotonous lecturer explain equations and answering basic questions other students had that were extremely easy to google, makes Ren wonder whether a degree is _really_ that worth it. Considering Futaba had no interest in business, and he was like the son Sojiro never had, there was a good chance he’d get a decently functioning café once Sojiro decided he was too old to work there or made enough money. You didn’t need a degree for that, right?

Then again, he’s fairly certain Sojiro would just refuse to hire him as a full-time employee out of spite for him not seeing things to the end and finishing his degree.

The bells chime over Leblanc’s door when Ren walks in, and through habit he walks over to the same booth as always where his friends were already sitting around with a cup of coffee in front of them. Before he even sits down in his usual spot another cup appears on the table.

“I’m just sayin’, it would’a been nice to at least tell me you guys were leaving,” Ryuji complains to Makoto, “I looked like a total loser out there by myself! At least Ann had the decency to text me.”

“Sorry, we already drank a bit and should’ve considered you before we left,” Makoto gives as a half-sincere explanation. It was true that neither of them had even realised they’d be leaving Ryuji back at the bar on his own. They were fairly certain at least Haru or Yusuke were still around before they left, but they didn’t even text to check if that was the case.

“Eh, well whatever,” Ryuji shrugs and finally let’s it go, “Did you guys at least have fun?”

“Afterwards? Yeah,” Ren smirks and the rest of the group, including Makoto, groans at his remark, “But the bar was fine. Way too many law students though. All they wanted to do was discuss politics.”

Haru nods, agreeing with him, “It would be nice to hear and talk about things other than the shortcomings of the current government. I tried speaking to one of them and whenever we changed the topic, it always came back to Shido and his party.”

“Sorry about that,” Makoto apologises on behalf of her faculty, “They can be normal sometimes but when they’re in bigger groups it seems like work and politics is all they want to talk about. We can try a different bar next week. Crossroads would serve us, right?”

“Well considering I’m the bartender, I would hope so,” Ren answers, “but I don’t exactly want to drink at the place where I work. Lala’s a cool boss but it would feel weird being drunk around her. Even if it’s on my night off.”

“Yeah, you never want to have your boss see you drunk,” Ann agrees, and everyone turns to her expectantly, “I don’t know from personal experience! It’s just like… the norm, y’know? Don't think you need to experience it to know it's awkward and bad.”

“Yeah, yeah, tell that to the cops,” Futaba jokes while she helps Sojiro bring over their curry for lunch, “I guess I wouldn’t know that feeling anyway since Sojiro sucks and won’t let me go out drinking with you guys.”

“Even if you showed up, they wouldn’t let you inside,” Yusuke tells her, “Most bartenders or managers check our identification and kick out anyone who is underage.”

“Boo,” Futaba hollers and sits down when all the plates have been brought over, “Eh, I guess I can wait another year. As long as Haru and Makoto don’t become boring in their last year of college. I mean, we gotta go at least when I graduate and for my birthday and all occasions that give us a reason to drink, right?”

“You don’t even like going outside,” Ann points out, despite not intending to bring her down, “But I guess we could just buy some sake and use the attic again if boss doesn’t mind.”

“Not like any of you would actually stop if I told you,” Sojiro mutters in the back as he picks up his newspaper and continues to read, “When did my opinion ever matter to you kids anyway.”

“Man has a point,” Ren agrees and starts on his curry, happily eating away while listening to his friends chat and bicker in the background.

* * *

The rest of the day gets a bit better when Haru joins him in the library to get some of her reading done as well, and the second lecture is nowhere near as drab as the one from this morning. Still, the work and social interactions tire him out, and he barely has the energy to get off in Shinjuku to go to his job.

But he needed the money for his rent since his parents weren’t willing to give him any extra money and he only had so much left from his time as a part-time vigilante. He drags his feet through the streets, and when he reaches the bar, he goes to the back, puts on his apron and gets to work, too lazy to go for the full look he normally had at the bar. When it came to crossdressing, since turning 20 Lala gave him full autonomy over that once she taught him the basics and made sure he didn’t look like a clown, but tonight there was no way he could be bothered to do the make-up, and if he wasn’t going to commit fully, he might as well just put on the apron and get it over with.

He was going to get paid the same anyway, and tonight wasn’t going to be busy so it’s unlikely he’d get any tips as Akira the cute bartender.

The first hour he spent leaned over the bar, chin in his palm while he switched between all of his social media, refreshing each time to see if anything interesting came up, occasionally answering the group chat whenever someone replied on that. Lala didn’t care, even Ohya wasn’t here to keep them entertained with stories from work.

In the second hour things got mildly more interesting when two men showed up, one choosing to drink a cocktail while the other went for the simple whiskey and ice option. Ren prepared the simpler drink first and Lala let him do the more interesting task of making a cocktail, however he quickly realised one of the key liquors it required wasn’t in stock. He returns to the two men and speaks to the one that ordered the drink, “Sorry but we don’t have the liquor needed to make this drink. We can make something else? I could go get the liquor too but it might take some time and even then there's no guarantee we'll get it.”

The man waves him off with a smile, “I heard the cocktail was really good here and was kinda looking forward to it. My friend and I aren’t exactly in a rush so I’d much rather wait for the drink I asked for.”

Ren takes off his apron, but before he leaves, Lala tells him to take some cash out of the register to pay for it and to bring the receipt back. He does that and leaves to go the liquor store nearby. He pats his back pocket for his wallet, double checking that he had a way to prove his age. The trip actually doesn’t take as long as he made it out considering there’s no cue and the man behind the counter finds what Ren needs easily. He’d been there enough times whenever Lala ran out of the liquor she needed that the man doesn’t even ask for his ID, so Ren makes it back pretty quickly.

He must’ve been gone maybe ten minutes tops, considering it’s a three-minute walk to the liquor store, and it’s not like Crossroads was constantly seeing traffic, so what he finds when he returns is horrifying to say the least.

For one, Lala was nowhere to be found. It was certainly the least surprising thing going on in the bar, but Ren’s fairly certain he’d never seen Lala leave it, save for maybe getting something more expensive from the back. Next was the man who ordered the whisky, glass empty in his hand and face on the bar. One drink wouldn’t do that much to a man no matter how hungry he was. Behind him, another man, his friend who ordered the cocktail, who lay on the floor, and while Ren couldn’t see his face it was probably for the best considering the pool of blood that stained the floor under him.

The last, and somehow most shocking in all of this was a newcomer, a man holding him at gunpoint, with flecks of blood on his face but posture scarily calm for what was happening in the bar around them. The man keeps the gun trained on Ren, hand far steadier than the last time the former leader of the Phantom Thieves saw him do this, “Long time no see.”

“Akechi?”

“Lock the door. We wouldn’t want anyone interrupting us right now, would we?”


	2. Decisions, decisions

On the one hand, Ren could run out of the place and call for help since he knows whatever Akechi is playing at, it’s a trap. On the other hand, he has no idea if the former detective won’t just hunt him down or worse, find whoever he ends up being with at the time and kill them both. That and he still has no idea what he’s done to Lala. Although it’s not like Ren ever thought of Akechi as a stone-cold psychotic killer who murdered people for the fun of it. Akechi’s targets were all somehow involved with Shido and getting his revenge on him, meaning that those two men were most likely involved with the politician and Lala was probably fine… hopefully.

“I don’t have all night, Ren,” Akechi says impatiently, “I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you try anything right now either.”

That was the other problem. If he didn’t lock himself in here, then there was a chance someone could walk in and meet the same fate as the other two men lying around the bar. Deciding that his life wasn’t worth as much as all the potential collateral damage involved with him running off, Ren turns around, locks Crossroads doors and faces Akechi. The former detective puts the safety back on his gun and hides it in the holster inside his suit jacket.

Akechi motions to the back of the bar with his head, “I don’t know about you but speaking around two corpses is quite off putting. You’re a bartender here, yes? Perhaps you could fix us both up with a drink.”

“I’m not doing that,” Ren says and points to the two men, “Don’t act like this is something normal. Actually, don’t act like me seeing you at all is normal. You died, I heard it. Futaba said you were gone.”

Ignoring his remarks, Akechi sits down on one of the couches in the back, “It wasn’t anything permanent. You of all people should know that there are items you can bring into Palaces which work far differently than they do in the real world. Such as guns, knives, and magical items which allow you to escape a Palace regardless of where you are.”

“You ran away?”

Akechi rolls his eyes, “Of course I ran away. What, did you honestly think I was going to let myself get gunned down by my cognitive double? I would have hoped that over these years you would have stopped being such a naïve fool.”

The smell of iron was only getting worse and worse the longer Ren stood over the corpses, and since he was locked in here with Akechi who didn’t seem to be leaving any time soon, he grabs two glasses from behind the bar and pours them both the liquor he bought. Maybe that could help him forget what he just witnessed at least, “Back to calling me an idiot? Well, whatever, not like I expected anything else of you.”

“I called you a fool, not an idiot,” Akechi corrects him, ever the pedantic man Ren once knew, “If I thought you were an idiot I wouldn’t have risked coming here in the first place. Which brings me to why I'm here.”

“I thought you were more than just some psychotic killer,” Ren says. Sure, it was cocky, but if he was right then he was a dead man anyway. At least like this he’ll die with the knowledge that he got to be a dick to his killer in his final moments.

“The world isn’t as black and white as you’re implying. The leader of the Phantom Thieves is the one person I expected to know that more than anyone,” Akechi taunts him, picking up the glass of liquor and leaning back on the couch again, “I’m not the conventional type of murderer you believe me to be. For the past three years I’ve been working at redeeming myself for all that I’ve done to ruin this country. Of course I had no idea if Shido’s men would come after me for failing to kill you, so I had to leave. I didn’t get very far.”

“Shido caught you?”

“Shido was in the hospital at the time,” Akechi informs him and takes a sip of his drink, “but to cut the story short, yes, it was on his orders. Over the following months I was left in some underground cell, tortured mentally and physically. It’s how I expected I’d end up one day, whether I would have managed to defeat Shido or not. His pockets ran deep, and he had allies everywhere. There was nowhere for me to run.”

“What, you’re working for him now? Properly?” Ren asks but Akechi shakes his head.

“Oh please, I’d rather be dead than ever find myself on the same side as that bastard,” he takes another drink, this time much longer, “No. I work for the people who saved me from that hole in the ground. They gave me some training, equipment, resources and the backup I require to carry out their tasks. In return for my work and cooperation, I won’t be facing any jail time for what I have done in the past.”

“So, this is your probation?” Ren smirks and to his surprise, Akechi relaxes a little more and smiles too.

“Of sorts, yes. Anyway,” he points to the men behind Ren, finally ready to give an explanation, “Those men have been following you for the past week. Their true purpose was to kidnap you and take you back to their boss. If at any point they had any reason to believe you knew what was happening, they had the green light to kill you.”

The disbelief on Ren’s face must’ve been obvious since the very next thing Akechi does is get out of his seat and wander over to the man still sitting in the chair. Without moving the body around too much, Akechi reaches into the inside pocket of the man’s jacket and pulls out a photo, which he then places on the table in front of Ren. It’s a candid photo, one taken when he was waiting for his train to take him to college, but it’s very obviously him, “How do I know you didn’t plant this here?”

“You don’t,” Akechi admits before sitting back down, “I didn’t come and save you just so I could convince you that I’m working on being a better person,” he finishes his drink then drags the photo over to his side of the table with a gloved hand. Akechi takes a lighter out of his jacket pocket, picks up the photo and sets one edge of it on fire, “If you don’t want to believe me, that is your right and your choice, but I would appreciate it if you could first hear what I have to offer.”

His decision was going to be a hard no, Akechi had to know that, right? None of this proved anything, and whatever plan Akechi had in mind, it was going to involve more than just two bodies, “Where’s Lala?”

“Who?” Akechi looks up from the burning photo in his hand, “Ah, your boss is safe. She’s unconscious in the back room but should be waking up in an hour or so. My employers will have dealt with all of this mess before then.”

“That’s comforting,” Ren says in a voice heavy with sarcasm that even Yusuke would be able to pick up on it, “What’s the offer?”

“Work with me,” Akechi says directly, dropping the remains of the photo into his empty glass. He crosses his legs and looks directly into Ren’s eyes, “We made a good team when we were working alongside each other, and I know you’re itching to get back into a more fulfilling life than that of of a college student working as a part time florist and part time bartender,” well that was creepy, but what else was new about this evening, Ren doesn’t say out loud, “Unlike last time, however, I won’t be blackmailing you. If you never want to see me again, I’ll make sure to honour your request. If you do not wish to join me, this will be the last time you see me.”

He was right, and Ren hated that he was right. His life didn’t exactly suck- he was a decent student, had two well paying and pleasant jobs, friends he could rely on for whatever he needed, good prospects for the future and an apartment that any of his peers would love to swap out for. But normal life for the former Phantom Thief was so… dull. He didn’t even know what Akechi had in store for him, but if he really was working for ‘the good guys’ this time, maybe it was exactly what he was looking for these past three years.

“You’re like some kind of spy, right?” Ren guesses, and to no surprise Akechi doesn’t confirm nor deny it, staying silent instead, “Uh, okay I’m just gonna assume it’s something along those lines. Would I be given all that training and stuff too?”

Akechi smirks and shakes his head, “no, we don’t have that kind of time. I may have misspoken. You wouldn’t be my partner per se… I can’t have you tagging along into the most dangerous fields, but I do need someone who has access to the Metaverse and knows about the Conspiracy. Someone I know can sneak around from previous experience and put his nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“You want a sidekick,” Ren groans, because of course that’s what he wanted. Akechi was never interested in having a Superman to his Batman. He just wanted a Robin. Someone to look up to him and confirm how amazing he was every five seconds. But then… Robin still did get in on the action and it was better than being unnamed victim of the week in Akechi’s story, “I’m not saying no… but I’ll have to think about it. I can’t abandon everything I have here.”

“You wouldn’t be abandoning anything,” Akechi reassures him, “I need you to keep up appearances and once this is over, to return to your normal life. But I understand if you need the time,” he reaches into the inside of his jacket and instinctively, Ren freezes up. Instead of a gun, however, Akechi pulls out his wallet and puts 2000 yen on the table as well as a card with a number on it, “For the liquor and the trouble I've caused you. The card is for when you make up your mind. That number will be out of service by the end of next week, so you will have till then to decide. Oh, and unless you want to be knocked out as well, I suggest you go home in the next ten minutes before my employers come to clean up this mess.”

Akechi stands up, puts his wallet back in his jacket and goes to the door. Ren only hears the sound of the door being unlocked and what he presumes is the other leaving. He leaves the money on the table but picks up the card under it. One week to consider his future. One week to think on just how much bullshit was Akechi selling him.

He needed to talk to someone, anyone about this, but Akechi didn’t even tell him if he could. Ren guessed it might be implied that he couldn’t considering the circumstances, but he desperately needed the advice his friends could give him right now.

If Crossroads was going to be taken over soon, he might as well go home. It wasn’t like there was anything good waiting for him here anyway.

Ren stands up, leaves the table, walks around the bodies and takes off his apron. Just before leaving, he goes to check on Lala in the back just to make sure Akechi wasn’t lying about what he’d done with her. He finds her propped up in a chair, so at least he had the afterthought of making her comfortable despite drugging her, but Ren still doesn’t trust the hitman enough to leave like that. He checks on Lala’s pulse, and when he’s certain that Akechi didn’t do anything other than simply knock her out, Ren leaves the bar.

He’ll just explain himself the next time he comes to work and he’s sure Lala would understand.

* * *

Yet more surprises come when Ren opens the door to his apartment and finds that the lights inside are already on, and considering he left when it was bright out, there was no reason for them to be on to begin with. He told Akechi he needed time, and the hour long trip back wasn’t exactly what he meant by that.

Quietly, he takes off his jacket and shoes, leaves them near the door and looks around for some sort of object he could defend himself with if he needed to. Then again, if it was someone with hostile intentions why would they drop the element of surprise by turning the light on in his apartment? If you didn’t pull down the blinds on the windows there was enough light from the city to see clearly in the apartment anyway.

“Ren? Is that you?” Makoto calls out from the bedroom.

Oh.

So it was just her.

_Paranoid much, Amamiya?_

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me,” Ren announces, letting his guard down and relaxing upon hearing her voice. Just because he had one, somewhat nasty, surprise earlier didn’t mean his whole day was going to mess up completely, “I thought you were going to stay with your sister tonight?”

Makoto takes some time to reply, presumably finishing up whatever she was doing in there to meet him in his living room, “She’s working on some case with a partner and their talking was causing me to lose my focus. I didn’t think you’d mind if I came over and did my homework here?”

Ren shales his head, “No, but uh… just let me know next time, okay?” He goes to the kitchen and pours water into his kettle, “I was worried I left the lights on all day,” Ren lies as a way to explain away any worries he might have been showing concerning her appearance in his apartment. Was this what working with Akechi was going to be like? Constant paranoia that something was going to attack him any second now? “Are you staying the night?”

“If you wouldn’t mind,” she says and points to the bag she left of the couch, “I brought a spare change of clothes this time so I won’t have to borrow your t-shirt again,” she walks closer to him and eyes him up and down. He’d ask what it was she was doing but Ren had a feeling she was examining his movements, “You’re tense,” she concludes, “was everything at work okay?”

Ren sets the kettle to boil and takes a seat at the kitchen table, “Work was fine,” _liar_, “but uh… well, there’s some decision I have to make regarding an optional project for class and I guess that’s stressing me out,” he says, quickly coming up with some lie. Maybe if he could talk about it like a side project he’d be able to get some sort of opinion on this, “It’s just… it’s risky, because I have a lot of work so doing this would take up a lot of my time… and it could stress me out a lot which could then make me drive you all away…”

Makoto pulls a chair closer to him and sits down as well, “Is the project so big it would really take up that much of your time?”

“Well I don’t know yet, but maybe…” Ren says while trying to come up with more metaphors for his actual problem, “the other thing is, it would be with this guy that I used to get along with, but then we had a falling out. Since then we didn’t get much of a chance to talk things out but maybe we’re okay again? It’s really hard to tell.”

“And this project could get you to dislike him even more, on top of possibly ruining the project due to a difference of opinion?” Makoto guesses and Ren nods. Well, ruining this project may just end up meaning Ren’s death but he’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it, “Is this project worth a lot?”

“Yes,” Ren answers immediately. At the end of the day, the possibility of going on some sort of wild adventure again, even if it was in secret with Akechi, was everything Ren missed from his life. It wouldn’t be forever, but maybe it would fill whatever hole was left in his heart when the Phantom Thieves disbanded for good, “I wouldn’t be considering it otherwise.”

“Then go for it,” Makoto says, patting him on the shoulder, “You weren’t ever the kind of person who played things safe, so why start now? For all you know, you could gain a new friend and get a lot of potential out of this.”

The water finishes boiling, and Ren stands up to make himself some tea. She was right, of course she was. Since his first run-in with Shido in his hometown all those years ago, Ren hadn’t ever been the kind of guy to consider how safe something was. He just did things. Surely Akechi knew better than to get him involved in something that wasn’t righteous, even if it was shady as hell. Then again, it’s not like the work of the Phantom Thieves went without its grey areas.

He pats at his pocket and pulls out his phone. He’d already saved the number to it and gotten rid of the business card in case one of his friends <strike>Futaba </strike>started snooping in his stuff. He could wait till tomorrow, make sure he’s made up his mind properly but…

“I’ll be right back,” Ren says without any explanation. He sets the kettle down before he’s even poured the hot water into his cup, slips on his shoes and grabs his jacket. He leaves the apartment and goes downstairs. He can’t have this conversation around Makoto. Making up some random project was maybe the only thing Ren could say that would fool her, but she wasn’t stupid. Besides, she knew Akechi too and the chance that she’d recognise his voice through the phone was too high.

Ren leaves the building and pops into the nearby alleyway, a place he knew he’d only encounter his neighbours if they were throwing out their trash, and considering the time, that was unlikely. He taps on the number and it begins to ring. Someone picks up on the other side and Ren doesn’t give them the chance to even say hello, “Meet me in Kichijoji tomorrow at twelve. You know where.”

“I was hoping you’d call today. So be it,” Akechi replies and after that short exchange, hangs up.

All that was left was hoping no one would catch him interacting with the formerly dead detective.


	3. Enemies to Co-Workers

Lingering around the district, Ren keeps walking in circles, often walking up to the doors of the jazz bar only to leave it again. At least he gave himself enough time for all of this dilly-dallying by arriving an hour earlier. The dread that came with figuring out whether he should go or not felt far too similar to the time he was waiting for classes to finish the day the Phantom Thieves tried to steal Niijima’s heart. Except this time it was even more dreadful. He has no idea what to expect of Akechi. At least then he was certain the former detective was going to try and shoot him. The uncertainty of what he was going to face was somehow so much worse than betting his life on his persuasion skills.

The clock on his phone strikes noon and standing right outside the door of the jazz bar, he knows he has to make a choice. Akechi said he’d leave him alone and never come into his life again if that’s what he wanted… but it wasn’t. Despite his many flaws, Akechi at least brought some excitement into Ren’s life. Being a Phantom Thief was exhilarating, but the chance that he’d get caught by one of his closest allies added far more to the thrill than Ren would ever admit to his friends. Even when they were on the same side, his rivalry with the former detective always kept things interesting. How could he give that up again?

Well, he figured he could still turn the other down and hopefully walk out of there alive, so Ren pushes the door and walks inside.

The bar is empty, save for the bartender who doesn’t even look up from his phone when Ren walks in. Ren opens his mouth to ask if anyone had come in other than him, but the bartender stops him by pointing to a door behind the bar, once again not even glancing away from whatever fascinating thing he was looking at on his device.

Assuming this was another thing Akechi set up, Ren follows the man’s finger and goes to the back room. His assumption is confirmed when inside he finds the former detective sitting on a couch, arms stretched over the back, clear gold drink in one hand and legs crossed, “I was wondering whether you’d show up at all.”

“Isn’t it a little early to be drinking?” Ren points to his glass as he closes the door behind him.

“Yes. Which is why this apple juice,” Akechi replies with a smirk, leaning forwards to set down the glass in front of him, “I got thirsty waiting here for you and this is a bar that serves more than just alcoholic drinks. Despite what you may think, I _am_ human and have the same human needs as you do.”

“Badass,” Ren says sarcastically and sits down in an armchair across from Akechi, “Well, we both know I didn’t come here to small talk with you. What are you trying to get me involved in?”

Akechi’s smirk drops when the conversation becomes more serious, and he reaches for a manila file that lay next to him, “I’m sure you remember some of the details of our conversation back in the cruise ship all those years ago, yes?”

“You mean that time you started shouting at me incoherently, threw a fit and tried to kill me and my friends as part of a terrible revenge plot?” Ren summarises, eyeing the manila file, “more-or-less.”

Akechi takes a few seconds to reply to that remark, clearly trying not to get annoyed with Ren’s biased account, and once he’s over it, he continues, “Yes, well, my role in Shido’s plan was relatively minor. I was one of his assassins and told to either give someone a psychotic breakdown or a mental shutdown, and while it was my aid that helped him greatly in his election campaign, using me was not his only method. Shido was paranoid, he had back up plans for back up plans in case I had failed in my objective. However with so many plans in place, he needed people to look over them.”

“Okumura was one of them, right?” Ren guesses and Akechi nods, “So was the SIU director, and principal Kobayakawa. You killed them when Shido already knew they’d be useless to him.”

“That’s right,” Akechi agrees and hands him the file in his hand, “Involving others in your criminal activity increases the chance that someone will talk. Shido hated loose ends like that and had them disposed of while he had the chance. Back then, I was an idiot for thinking I wouldn’t become one of them. But this isn’t about me anymore. This is about the remnants of that time,” he nods to the file in Ren’s hand, “They called themselves the Conspiracy. You may find some familiar faces in there.”

Upon opening up the file, the first few pages list details of some of the cognition's he fought back in that Palace. The politician, the noble, the TV station president, the IT man, and the Yakuza guy. Ren found the last one the most intriguing, considering most of the text was redacted and his photo was the only one that wasn’t coloured, “Do you not have information on him?”

Akechi shakes his head and points to the crossed-out segments, “We listed him off here so you’re aware of just how far Shido was willing to go to get what he wanted, but to the best of our knowledge, this man is no longer involved. However, he is still in the Yakuza and we decided to leave out further details about him for your own safety. The less you know, the better.”

Looking through the file, more and more names come up. Many of them appear to be scientists, or doctors of some kind. There’s a few psychologists listed off too. The last name however lists a familiar name, with another black and white photo, “Wakaba Isshiki was part of this too?”

“To an extent, albeit almost unknowingly, but yes,” Akechi says, “Shido was fascinated by her research and sponsored her efforts in uncovering the secrets of the Metaverse, by which I mean he provided her both with the funds necessary and the subjects she needed, whether they were willing or not.”

“You too?”

“That’s irrelevant,” Akechi insists and quickly moves on. Ren doesn’t even know what to make of that sort of response, “However it was through her research that Shido knew how to optimise my power and used that information to get me to dispose of her. Still, that research was never properly destroyed as it was too valuable and should I have failed too early Shido would have still needed someone working in the Metaverse to continue his mental shutdown business.”

“Is he still using it?” Ren continues to ask him questions by interrupting him, “We changed his heart but honestly doesn’t seem to have had that much of an effect. He’s just barely being held back from being a dictator.”

Akechi’s face scrunches into an expression of disgust, “You know it pains me to say this, but I think you’re correct in thinking Shido is a good man now... let me rephrase that; a man with a conscience. He’s in charge now so he has to act like it but on his own he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I, more than anyone, know how much his political career was driven by corruption, which is why he’s nothing more than a puppet right now for the rest of the Conspiracy. A man who wants to hold onto power but doesn’t know how to is easily influenced by those around him, and unfortunately over the years he’s surrounded himself with scum. There is someone else who’s interested in the research. The organisation I work for has been able to track movements made in the Metaverse by those who shouldn’t be there. For a while, we knew that some of it was you, but once we accounted for that by referring to every change of heart case, we were able to detect more movement. We knew it wasn’t any of us, nor could it have been the Phantom Thieves, so someone else is accessing the Metaverse.”

“And they’re the only ones with the knowledge to do that that you know of,” Ren concludes and closes the file, “You don’t want to involve the others, but even going into the Metaverse to fight them just the two of us is risky. We don’t know if this person isn’t another Wildcard or has strange powers.”

There was one more worry Ren had, but he couldn’t voice it to Akechi of all people. What if this person was another pawn in Yaldabaoth’s game, made to act as his agent now that Akechi was working to maintain order? The set up almost sounded like something the god of control would do, whether it violated his deal with him or not.

“Which is why we won’t do that,” Akechi informs him and reaches out for the file. Ren hands it back over to him with a questioning look, “Or at the very least, it isn’t what we’ll do immediately. We need to find out more about the Conspiracy’s plan; what they are doing, what their intentions are and how exactly are they doing this. As a side objective, we need to recover the remains of Wakaba Ishiiki’s research.”

“You don’t want to destroy it?” Ren asks him. It made the most sense and honestly was the best solution. At least this way they’d be sure it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands… and Akechi must’ve known that, “No, _you_ _do_. It’s your employer who wants it, right?”

Akechi uncrosses his legs and leans forward to pick up his juice. He takes a long drink before he answers the question, “Yes, and as much as I disagree with this notion, I won’t disobey them. If and when we find that research, I’m taking it straight to my boss, regardless of the situation.”

“This job is starting to sound more like a cult than a secret organisation,” Ren points out but Akechi shrugs it off.

“Cults are also organisations with leaders, rules and devotion. However, I can assure you that this organisation does not force me to believe in some non-existent god or cause nor do I have to participate in rituals of any sort,” Akechi tells him and moves on, “We’re getting off topic.”

In all of this, Ren still had no idea what he was even supposed to do. Wasn’t Akechi supposed to be the spy now who had the ability to do whatever was needed without him? Oh. Right. There was that one issue, “You need me to get close to the Conspiracy because they already know who you are.”

“They’d shoot me on sight. Repeatedly,” Akechi confirms and takes a final drink of his juice, “Shido may recognise you so I’d avoid him if possible, however your name and face were never published after your capture due to your age. Working under the same name may run the risk of Shido finding out and possibly ratting you out since I told him about you all those years ago when he ordered your execution. No one else in the Conspiracy should recognise you by your appearance.”

“I’m just some brat,” Ren tells him, “Random college student, how the hell am I going to even get involved…?” Except, Akechi was in an even worse standing than Ren was back when he showed up on Shido’s metaphorical doorstep… but there was that one thing… “Wait. No. I’m not creating mental shutdowns just for the sake of this.”

Akechi shakes his head, “I told you before, I’m not going to make you do anything that won’t allow you to return to your normal life. That includes murder and conspiracy to murder. If they ask you to deal with someone, I will make sure they are not harmed in any way while also allowing you to convince the Conspiracy of your loyalty and dedication.”

Ren hums, considering his options. Surely Akechi would still let him leave if he chose to? Working for the bad guys to take them out from the inside wasn’t the worst thing Ren was considering when he came here, even if it meant essentially copying his former rival, “Why would they take me over for someone who they already have working for them?”

“More manpower in an unknown universe is one reason,” Akechi says, listing off the reasons on his gloved fingers, “Years of experience in the Metaverse, skill, the ability to summon any persona at will and the power of psychotic breakdowns.”

“I can’t do that,” nor did he want to if he was being honest. Even if he had Loki’s power, it wouldn’t feel right to be hurting people he didn’t even know.

“I can,” Akechi counters, “I have the authorisation to use it if necessary. The effects themselves don’t harm the individual, and we agreed to keep the consequences to a minimum. We were able to contact the previous victims and none of them suffered any long-term effects as a result.”

That still didn’t make it right, Ren thinks but doesn’t say, “It’s extremely grey, morally speaking.”

“And forcibly changing the attitudes and thoughts of an individual without their consent isn’t?” Akechi counters again and well… Ren didn’t want to admit it, but the man had a point. There was a reason that Akechi was able to stay relatively popular by claiming that what the Thieves were doing was morally unjust.

That cleared that up. With little arguing left, aside from just calling Akechi’s bullshit on the off chance that this was his convoluted way of compromising Ren, he has little left to say. Cleaning up loose ends he left over might make his deal with Yaldabaoth feel a little better in the long run, but it wasn’t something the god would just turn a blind eye on. If he was going to use the Metaverse more, he'd have to return to the Velvet Room eventually and face the fake Igor and Lavenza.

But pissing off the authority and gods was one of Ren’s favourite past-times, and Akechi might as well be dangling the key to unlock that world again right in front of his face.

So what is he supposed to do?

Not grab it and stay seated?

Or snatch it out of Akechi's hand and run for the door?

“When do we start?”

“Not for a little while,” Akechi replies, standing up, “We needed to be sure you would get involved and if you didn’t we would have needed more time to put our back up plan in place,” He does the buttons up on his suit jacket then picks up his empty glass from the table, “I’ll contact you when necessary. Until then, keep up your studies and don’t tip off the others that I’ve returned to Tokyo.”

Leaving Ren behind in the room, Akechi walks out and puts his glass down on the bar. The bartender picks it up, pockets his phone and puts it in the sink, then walks back around the bar to join Akechi, “He agreed?”

“I told you I could get the job done, sir,” Akechi replies as they walk out of the jazz bar and make their way to the black car down the street, “Convincing Amamiya to infiltrate an organisation he worked so hard to bring down was never going to be the difficult part.”

“Still,” The fake bartender winces and runs a hand through his silver hair, “Putting you out in the field wasn’t the best way we could have gone about this considering the risks involved. There wasn’t any guarantee he wouldn’t tell all of his friends that the man who tried to kill him is back.”

“I knew he wouldn't talk,” Akechi replies, reaching for the door handle, “As long as he thinks they’re still in danger, he’ll keep his mouth shut.”

“You threatened them?” The other raises an eyebrow.

“I let Amamiya’s mind go where it was bound to go and didn’t care to correct him too much,” Akechi informs him and gets into the backseat of the car along with his co-worker, “When the right time comes, I’ll debrief him. Whether he’ll forgive me or not will be irrelevant because he’ll be in far too deep by then to abandon the mission.”

“It’s pretty cold of you to manipulate him.”

The car drives out from the street and makes its way back to where the two came from. Akechi smirks as he looks outside the window and observes the traffic, “Manipulation and deceit is the exact reason I’m here in the first place. Did you honestly think I had any other value to our leader?”


	4. Basic Training

When Akechi said it would be some time before he heard from him again, Ren had a week in mind, maybe two, but a month and a half later he starts to think if maybe he had hallucinated the whole thing. Honestly, there was a certain chance he had. With exams coming up and his account running low, the sleep deprivation might’ve just made him come up with randomly seeing the one person who could free him from his obligations.

It’s not until he’s sitting in his living room when Makoto comes in holding a package meant for him, “The postman gave me this to give to you. I haven’t seen him before, but I guess he must’ve seen me come here often enough to think I live with you,” she says and sets the package down in front of him. He hadn’t ordered anything, if his friends wanted to give him something they’d just meet up, Sojiro only gave him stuff whenever he came to Leblanc and it’s not like his real parents ever contacted him to begin with.

Ren doesn’t doubt for a second that the ‘postman’ was just another person working for Akechi and was told that Makoto would respect Ren’s privacy enough to deliver it but not open the package herself. However, while she’s in the room, Ren doesn’t reach for it or open it, making Makoto suspicious of his behaviour, “Aren’t you going to see what’s inside?”

“Oh, um,” Ren stutters, trying to come up with an excuse, “It’s just some papers from the landlady. She said she’d send me the new contract by mail, but I have to do this first anyway before I read it,” he nods to the paper he was working on on his laptop. At least part of it was true. Akechi told him to keep up appearances and he wasn’t going to let his grades drop now of all times.

It seems to be enough for Makoto, who shrugs it off and walks over to his bedroom, “I won’t bother you then. I left my notebook behind from last time, so I just came by to get it,” she returns with a notebook in hand that she puts away into her bag, “Anyway, I’ll see you tonight, yeah?”

“Tonight?” Ren looks up from his paper. He didn’t even realise he’d agreed to do something tonight.

“The Okumura Foods charity fundraiser?” Makoto reminds him with a cocked eyebrow, “Haru’s been talking about it for the past week. I’m surprised you managed to forget somehow.”

“Oh right,” he replies with little enthusiasm in his voice, “I’ve been busy with work,” except, that was of course a lie. He’d been preoccupied with thinking whether he’d ever hear back from Akechi again, “But, um, yeah I’ll see you tonight. Should I just meet you there or do you want me to come pick you up?”

Makoto shakes her head and turns around to go to the door, “No, I’ll be getting ready with Haru and helping her check on the set up. I’ll meet you there. Please, don’t be late. I think Haru’s really counting on this to go well considering Okumura Food’s is only now recovering from bad press.”

She opens his door and walks out before he can insist that he wasn’t going to be late and that he wasn’t going to disappoint her or Haru. However, as soon as the door closes behind her, Ren closes his laptop, reaches for the package and opens it. The first thing that tumbles out is a gun packed in bubble wrap. He sets it aside, unsure of how real it even was. The next thing that comes out is a dagger, also wrapped in bubble wrap. He unpacks this one, but as soon as he runs his finger along the blade, he knows it’s fake despite looking like the real thing. He figures then that the gun must also be fake yet despite that he leaves it in its wrap.

The last thing in the package is an envelope, with just his name spelt out on the front. He rips it open and a smaller piece of paper falls out of it, giving him a date and a time, as well as instructions to leave his building at the time indicated above. According to that, he still had about half an hour to prepare, and not wanting to dwell too much on what was in store for him, Ren takes his time cleaning up his apartment. He plays music out loud as he washes the dishes, singing along to the songs he knew just so he wouldn’t have to think about it. He was definitely excited, yes, but a large part of him was terrified of what was to come.

He dries his hands when his alarm goes off, signalling he has five minutes to finish up whatever he was doing. He grabs his jacket, puts on his shoes and leaves the apartment, patting around his pockets for his keys before he leaves the place. He steps outside but no one appears to be waiting for him. He takes out his phone and considers calling the number Akechi gave him a long time ago, but he quickly remembers the former detective telling him that the number would no longer be in service a week after their first meeting. There was little doubt in Ren’s mind that it would work at all.

His worries are somewhat set aside when a black car with tinted windows drives up and the back door opens up for him, “Get in,” Akechi tells him from inside the car and Ren does as he’s told.

He closes the door and finds himself alone in the backseat with Akechi, a divider blocking his view of the driver. In his hands, Akechi holds some sort of black fabric, and his lifts it up to Ren’s face, “Put this blindfold on.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me out to dinner first?” Ren chides but Akechi doesn’t appear to find it as amusing as he does, especially when he decides to take matters into his own hands by shifting closer to Ren so he can put the blindfold on himself, “Always knew you’d want to take control.”

“Do you ever speak in anything but jokes and innuendos?” Akechi sighs, tying the back just a little harder than necessary, which Ren is certain is on purpose.

Ren pulls at the blindfold so that it doesn’t feel like it’s squeezing his brain, but even when it’s adjusted he can’t see a thing, “You think the only reason I’m called Joker is cos I’m a wildcard?” Ren smiles, and while he can’t see Akechi’s expression he knows him enough to know the other isn’t impressed, “Will I finally get to see your secret lair?”

“Part of it, yes,” Akechi replies and Ren hears him shifting back to his side of the car, “You’ve been invited to the Okumura charity fundraiser, an event attended by many of Tokyo’s elite, including some high-level politicians.”

“Is Shido going to be there?” Ren turns his head in Akechi’s direction.

“No,” the other is quick to reply, “Since becoming Prime Minister, Shido has rarely gone out into the public unless absolutely necessary, and I believe he is still trying to stay away from Okumura considering he had the CEO of the company killed.”

“By you,” Ren adds quietly, not thinking his words through first.

“I didn’t think that needed specifying, but yes,” Akechi confirms, “That being said, the Conspiracy likes to keep tabs on their former allies if remnants of them are still alive. They’re sending Shido’s Minister of Finance to have a look into this, while also pretending like they actually care about whatever Okumura is trying to raise money for this time.”

“Foster care,” Ren informs him quickly before he moves on.

Akechi pauses briefly, then hums disapprovingly, “A lost cause then.”

“Wouldn’t you of all people be supportive of this?”

“Throwing money at the issue isn’t going to solve how unwanted children are treated both by society and the government,” Akechi snaps back at him, “If she wanted to help she could perhaps look into a career in politics to reform the system, but creating a fundraiser for the rich and famous is going to do nothing to solve the underlying issues while giving the elite a reason to feel good about themselves,” he takes a deep breath, exhales, then continues, “We’re getting off topic. Minister Yamazaki is believed to be one of the higher ups in the Conspiracy, and this may be the only chance in the near future you’ll be able to run into someone with such connections.”

“Where are you taking me?” Ren finally asks, “If that’s all there is to it, couldn’t you have just called me about all of this? Would’ve saved you the trouble and creep factor,” he says, pointing to the blindfold just be extra sure Akechi knew what he was talking about.

“You’re nothing, Ren.”

“Yeah you made that abundantly clear when you called me attic trash.”

“I meant to him,” Akechi clarifies, probably rolling his eyes, “In his eyes, your just some lucky student who has good connections but knows nothing about high society. In these circumstances, he’s likely to completely ignore you if all you do is walk up to him and try speaking to him. We need to create a reason for him to listen to you.”

The car stops, and Ren feels Akechi’s gloved fingers against the back of his head as the other unties the blindfold. Once it’s off, it takes Ren a couple of minutes to adjust to the lighting, but when he does, he looks out the window in hope of being able to figure out where he is.

He has no such luck, as all he finds are drab, windowless grey walls awaiting him, in an area resembling a parking garage. On the other side of the area he sees a man hitting a mannequin with a staff, and various weapons line the wall behind him, “I know you probably won’t answer me, but where have you taken me?”

“Training grounds,” Akechi gets out of his side of the car, and Ren copies him, “Thanks to me we know how proficient you are out in the Metaverse, but we have no guarantee you’ll be the same in the real world. Yamazuki won’t talk to you if you simply approach him, and even in the best case scenario he'll ignore you completely. However, if you were to save his life at this event then perhaps he may be interested in you enough to contact you in his own time.”

“You think someone is going to try to kill him?” Ren raises an eyebrow and Akechi shakes his head.

“We know someone will try to and fail to kill him because you will be there to stop it,” Akechi tells him as he makes his way over to the other man, “Of course, in reality no one will truly be in danger, but we can’t have him think this is all a set up that you’re in on. So, we’ll be practising here.”

Walking over to the mat, Ren thinks back to the package he was given earlier. They were both fake, probably intended for the Metaverse but maybe that was just supposed to be Akechi’s way of tipping him off about today’s exercise, “Are those also fake?” He asks, pointing to the weapons lining the walls.

“The Conspiracy has deep connections within the police station,” Akechi begins, “Should our wannabe assassin get captured, the police may tip off our enemies that the weapons were fake and any respect the Minister has for you will be lost. So no, they are not.”

Part of Ren wants to ask if any of this was legal in any way, if maybe there was some elected authority somewhere signing off on this. The other part of him knows he won’t like the answer regardless of what it is, so he keeps quiet, removes his shoes and steps onto the mat.

The man stops hitting the mannequin with his staff and takes a step back, while Akechi removes his suit jacket, sets it down on a bench on the other side of the mat, removes his tie and rolls up his sleeves, “We’ll work on the set up later, but for now I’d like to see your skills in the real world.”

“What do you want me to-,” Ren tries to ask, but his question is quickly answered when Akechi swings at him with his fist and the other ducks down to avoid getting smack in the face. Akechi is quicker than he expected, moving far swiftly than he did when they last fought and kicks at his side.

With nowhere to go, Ren’s kicked in the side and he doubles over, landing on the mat with a smack. Akechi reaches out and helps Ren up, “Again,” he says, before kicking low at his feet.

Ren jumps away in time and tries to move on the offensive, not getting anywhere by just dodging Akechi. He lifts his fist up to punch the other while he’s still trying to recover his balance from the failed kick, but even that doesn’t work as Akechi grabs his fist at the last second, turns it, then pulls Ren into a lock, “a few years ago I would’ve lorded this over you, but you’re making this far too easy.”

“I don’t have the training you do,” Ren grunts through the lock and tries to pull out but Akechi only tightens his grip.

“You think I’m an expert?” He finally loosens his grip and lets Ren go. He nods over to the other man who had been watching from the side-lines this whole time. Silently, the man comes over and takes Akechi’s place, “For reasons that should be obvious, I will not be able to attend this event so you will be up against someone with far superior skills than mine. If he were to hold back too much to account for your lack of skills, we risk the chance of them seeing through our lies,” Akechi turns around and walks off the mat, “So, try to keep up.”

Akechi might as well have been standing still compared to his co-worker, who in less than a second is already swiping at Ren’s feet, grabbing his arm as he falls to cushion his fall, only to pin it down to his back and use his body weight to keep Ren flailing on the ground bellow. His arm burns from the pulling the man had to do when catching his arm, and he smacks his free hand on the mat to stop him from getting crushed any further, “Fine, fine!” The man releases Ren and stands up, “I get it. Can you at least teach me something instead of smacking me around? I feel like that would help.”

Akechi puts his hands on his hips, looking Ren up and down, then sighs, “We’ll have to start from the beginning, but we don’t have much time. Fine,” he looks over to the man, “We’ll resort to the simplest scenario. You know what to do,” the other man nods and walks off the mat, over to the only door Ren could see that wasn’t a garage door- the elevator.

In the meantime, Akechi turns around and pulls some stuff of the weapon rack, and when Ren leans to see over Akechi’s shoulders, he sees the other put a silencer on a pistol. Turning around, he walks over to Ren with the pistol in hand, “Disarm me.”

Clicking the safety off, Akechi points the gun at Ren, who only looks down at it and stops moving at all.

The tricky thing with the Metaverse was seeing it occasionally pop up in the real world, especially when you’re hopped up on countless mind-altering drugs. All he can think of when he sees Akechi pointing that gun at him is the interrogation room, with no way to escape, no way to back out of his plan and no way to change fate anymore.

He hears a clicking noise, and it brings him back to the real world where Akechi puts the safety back on, removes the silencer and holsters the gun, “You froze. I thought I shot your cognition, meaning you weren’t even there to see me do it.”

Ren shakes his head, “I watched you pull the trigger… Sometimes the real world looked like the Metaverse. The school corridors looked like a dungeon, regular people suddenly turned into ATM’s, and you walked into the interrogation room even though you were really in the Metaverse.”

“I see,” Akechi replies, looking away from him, “Does the same thing happen with anyone else?”

“Haven’t had anyone else point a gun to my head,” Ren replies honestly. At least not in the real world, but in the Metaverse it was much easier to survive a gun to the head if he had the right mask on, “We can try though, with your co-worker,” he says quickly before Akechi decides he doesn’t need Ren anymore, “Maybe I won’t freeze up with him.”

“Okay,” Akechi agrees as the elevator doors open again, and his co-worker comes out, this time in a mask, gloves and black clothing, “He’ll be masked, but you’ll know it’s him so that shouldn’t be a problem… unless you need further confirmation that it isn’t me under the mask?”

Ren shakes his head again, “No, I’ll be fine, Akechi. Just tell me what I need to do,” he says, turning around to face his opponent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thank you for all your kudos and comments, I really love to read every single one!
> 
> A couple of things now that royal is out; While I am looking at spoilers myself I won't be spoiling it here and any information that I put in here that wasn't in vanilla p5 is a headcanon of mine. Which also means that this still will follow vanilla p5 regardless of what happens in royal. So yeah, don't worry about royal spoilers here since they won't show up! (Unless I just accidentally predict something somehow).
> 
> Happy halloween y'all!
> 
> EDIT: Welp this aged poorly. From Chapter 9 onwards I will probably include spoilers. As of chapter 9 there are only minor ones referring to game mechanics but I can't promise that there won't be some references to Royal from that chapter onwards.


	5. Assassination

Ren tries his best not to flinch or cringe any time he moves his muscles, but it’s a real problem when he feels every part of his body scream at him as he moves through the doors of the extravagant hotel where the event was taking place. The amount of gold and marble was hurting his eyes, the one part of this body he’s certain Akechi and his co-worker didn’t actually punch when trying to teach him some real-life self-defence.

At least he got a nice suit out of the whole ordeal, so it’s not like he’s completely lost out on this deal so far.

All around him he can only see old men and women, wearing the most expensive dresses, suits and accessories Ren’s ever seen outside of window shopping and Ann’s photoshoots, making him completely self-conscious. Not that he had anything to prove to these people or even thinking like he wasn’t enough. No, what really worried him was accidentally running into one of these people, somehow ruining their outfits and getting sued for the millions of yen he didn’t have.

Not like getting sued and sent to jail was outside of the norm for him either.

“There you are,” he hears Makoto say behind him, happy to have finally found someone his age, and Makoto especially. At least if he did mess up, she was great at diffusing situations. It helped that she was also the sister of one of the best prosecutors in the city and everyone knew it, “I was wondering if you were late.”

Ren shakes his head, “No, just… overwhelmed?” He tries to narrow down the feeling, “I didn’t expect to feel this uncomfortable in a place like this,” he admits. Makoto takes his arm and puts her hand on it.

“Then let me help. I don’t know everything about the correct etiquette here but I’m sure the two of us can figure it out together,” Makoto smiles and leads him over to the rest of the group, minus Haru. Ren keeps his eye out for the minister, and even thinks he catches sight of him but the crowd is large enough that the man disappears again.

He’ll have time to deal with that in a little while.

Akechi did promise him that they’d let the fundraiser run long enough for Haru to get something out of it too.

“Renren!” Ryuji exclaims way too loudly, and Ann lightly smacks him on the arm for it.

“Ryuji! We’re at a fundraiser! What did I say?”

“No shouting…? Yeah, I already forgot,” Ryuji replies, rubbing the back of his head, “Though it might lighten things up in here… everyone’s real snobby.”

“It’s the super-rich,” Futaba nods, agreeing with Ryuji, “Of course they’re old geezers who have never heard of the term ‘fun’ in their whole life.”

“You didn’t expect a rave, did you?” Ren asks with a smirk.

“Obviously not!” Ryuji replies and groans, “But you gotta admit… this is pretty boring. I mean, I’m totally here for Haru and all and I wanna see her thingy do well… but it ain’t gonna stop me from complainin’.”

“There’s an open bar?” Makoto suggests and Ryuji’s eyes lighten up immediately, “Just… don’t go too crazy, alright? We are still in a high status event and I’d rather we not get kicked out for public indecency.”

Ryuji waves her off, “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry! We’ll drink just enough to make this snooty event a bit more interesting,” he says and walks away from the group to look for the aforementioned bar, Yusuke following behind him.

“I’m on it,” Yusuke tells Makoto and Ren as he passes them, not even needing to be prompted. Unfortunately, that did leave one more gremlin completely unsupervised.

Ren folds his arms and eyes Futaba as she takes out her phone, “You’re not getting incriminating information on these people, okay? Haru needs them to spend a lot of money here.”

“Aww, you suck,” Futaba says, putting her phone back into her bag, “I can’t even drink to make this more fun for me! I promise I’ll only put the knowledge into use after everyone’s donated their millions?” She asks with a pout.

“And _I’ll_ keep an eye on her,” Ann says, taking Futaba by the arm and dragging her away, “C’mon, lets play this fun game I like to call ‘wife or mistress’,” she says and somehow manages to get Futaba’s interest, leaving Ren once again alone with Makoto.

“So much for them,” Makoto sighs as she turns to Ren, “We should find Haru and make sure she’s doing alright. She claimed she wasn’t stressing out when I last saw her but then about three seconds later I heard her screaming into the curtains so…”

Ren nods, “yeah… we probably shouldn’t tell her about Ryuji or Futaba though, it’ll only stress her out further.”

“Right,” Makoto agrees, and they walk through the crowds, Makoto arm back on Ren’s. Occasionally someone stops them both to talk to Makoto about her sister’s achievements and Makoto kindly interacts with them while Ren pretends to ignore all the dirty looks he’s getting from pretty much everyone in the room.

They reach the other end of the hall when they finally find Haru, who’s talking to someone from catering while she tries to sort out an issue, “-then please don’t serve it if the order is incorrect. I would rather not risk our guests eating something I haven’t personally approved myself. Oh, Ren!” She waves over and smiles at him. With his orders, the caterer walks away and Haru joins her friends, “Are you having fun?”

Normally his immediate reaction would be to be completely honest with her, but this was something Haru worked on so much and he couldn’t just tell her he didn’t feel comfortable being in such a place with these kinds of people to her face, “Uh, yeah. Got to dress up for the occasion and everything.”

Haru waves her hand and giggles, “It’s alright, Ren. I appreciate you coming here in the first place since I know how everyone here makes you feel. Please, be honest with me if you can. I need it to know how what I can improve on for next time I organise such an event.”

“Um…” Ren stutters and rubs the back of his neck, “Well yeah, everyone looks at me like I’m trash and that kind of sucks… but if you want my support then maybe next time I can work the bar? I have references if you need them and I can do it for free,” he suggests. It’s not a bad deal either- he gets to support his friend while also being completely ignored by the patrons as part of the help.

Haru shakes her head, “oh, I couldn’t let you do it for free. But it isn’t such a bad idea. I’m sure you’d be far more reliable than what I’ve had to deal with today,” she says with a sigh and looks down at the ground, “I feel like a bride at a wedding that’s gone wrong in every single way.”

“No! Don’t say that!” Makoto lets go of Ren and pulls Haru into a hug, “It’s going perfectly! Everyone seems very happy to be here, the food and drinks are good, your guests have been donating a lot and I have Ann and Yusuke keeping an eye on Futaba and Ryuji from bringing too much attention to themselves.”

“What are they doing?” Haru asks, tone indicating a lot of worry on what her troublesome friends could be up to.

“I’m sure it’s not anything…” Ren trails off then looks to the bar, “I’ll go check,” he reassures her and walks in that direction.

Through pure coincidence, he runs into the very man he’s supposed to be saving later, although not in the best of circumstances, as the man shoves an empty glass of champagne into his hands, “You. Get me another glass,” he orders and Ren furrows his eyebrows.

No. He can’t be a dick to this guy yet.

That comes for when he inevitably helps Akechi arrest the guy.

But that’s so far in the future…

“Right away, sir,” Ren replies through gritted teeth and goes to the bar, where he leaves the empty glass of champagne and joins Ryuji and Yusuke.

“You seriously taking that sort of attitude from that guy?” Ryuji asks and Ren just shrugs.

“It’s Haru’s night,” Yusuke reminds him, “regardless of how these people treat us, we should keep in mind that upsetting them may also lead to them taking it out on our friend.”

“You can’t tell me you’re enjoying this,” Ryuji turns to Yusuke who shakes his head.

“Their behaviour is despicable, of course… however I doubt even a change of heart would do anything to change their attitude.”

“Not like any of you would do it anyway,” Ren mutters and luckily the hall is far too loud for either of the former phantom thieves to hear it. The bartender comes back with another glass of champagne and hands it over to Ren, “I guess as long as you’re not destroying the bar you don’t need two babysitters.”

Yusuke chuckles but Ryuji finds the comment far less amusing, “Hey! The bar for my behaviour is not _that_ low, y’know!”

Ren smirks, but it’s the only reply he’s willing to give to that. Why start an argument now? “Gonna go back and report to Haru. See ya,” he lifts up the glass of champagne and nods to them, Yusuke raising his own glass while Ryuji continues to give him the stink-eye.

On his way back, Ren notices that the minister is missing from the crowd, and when he looks around the place he can’t see him anymore. He must be going out for a smoke now, so Ren picks up his pace and reaches Haru, who takes the glass out of his hand.

“Oh that’s very generous of you, Ren! Thank you!” She replies with a smile and he lets her have it.

She needs it anyway.

He’s starting to run out of time, and now in Makoto’s capable hands, Ren hopes Haru will be okay. He hates knowing the fundraiser will probably be over once someone tries to assassinate one of its guests, but in the end he’s sure Haru would forgive him if she ever found out he was involved and why he was involved in the first place.

He finds the minister in the crowd and watches as he excuses the people he’s with, leaving them. Quickly remembering how the man acted when he first ran into Ren, the former Phantom Thief makes sure to pass by a waiter and grabs two glasses of champagne off his tray and flashing him a cheeky grin when he walks away.

Ren finds the man on the balcony outside and extends one of the champagnes towards him, “I’m not one of the waiters here and I got held up by Okumura-san, but here is the champagne you asked for earlier. I hope I’m not too late in fulfilling this request.”

“Hmph,” The minister huffs with a cigarette in his mouth. He takes the glass from him and puts it on the banister. He fishes a lighter out of his pocket and tries to light the cigarette in his mouth but it fails him, so Ren reaches into his own pocket knowing that Akechi left him with a lighter of his own. He helps the man light his cigarette, then pockets it, “You’re persistent.”

“I want to make the best of the opportunity given to me,” Ren informs the man and feels himself gag as soon as the words come out, “It’s not every day I have the chance to speak to such inspiring men such as yourself.”

Akechi didn’t bug him or put a wire on him, but Ren knows if he’s somehow hearing any of this, he’s having a hoot. If he wanted to get revenge on Ren for anything at all, it would be by forcing him to suck up to the super rich in the most grovelling way possible.

The man groans, “Listen, kid, I’m sure you have great aspirations to run for office one day or whatever, but I don’t give a damn. If I knew Okumura was going to bring along her bratty high school friends I never would’ve showed up.”

“I’m in college-.”

“_Do I look like I give a damn_?”

Okay _wow, _he knew he couldn’t just deck the guy across his smug face both because that would land him in jail again and because it would definitely compromise the mission but dear god did he really need it for the cathartic release, “I’m sorry to have wasted your time, sir,” Ren barely manages to get out instead of the massive ‘fuck you’ he was shouting at the man in his head.

“Yeah? Well if you’re really sorry you’d just leave,” the man replies just as a red dot appears on his chest.

_About goddamn time._

“Look out!” Ren shouts, tackling the man to the ground just as the shot whizzes past him and hits the banister, causing part of the stone to come off and land on top of the both of them. Their champagne glasses spill out and break on impact when they hit the floor.

“What the hell?!” The politician shouts, dropping his cigarette to the floor while trying to shove Ren off of him, “What’s going on?”

“Someone’s trying to kill you,” Ren replies and gets up. He turns around, only to be met with the masked assassin pointing his pistol at him. The politician behind him sits up and tries to back away by shifting backwards on the ground.

Ren watches as the assassin lowers his gun, not in defeat but rather to get a better aim at the politician. At the last second, Ren tries to grab the gun from the man, pointing it away from the minister…

…and pointing it right at his abdomen.

The gunshot rings out loudly across the balcony, enough to stop the party inside. It brings attention to the three men, one now jumping over the balcony in an attempt to get away, one still cowering in the corner and the other one clutching onto his side as he falls to the ground, blood quickly spreading over his white shirt.

Ren hears a few screams from inside as he hits the ground, while others rush out onto the balcony to figure out what’s going on. Some guards run past the crowd and try to chase after the assassin while the guests look over Ren or try to help the minister stand up.

“Ren!” He hears Ryuji shout, the sprinter appearing by his side first, followed by Ann and Futaba. In the distance, he can hear Makoto trying to call for an ambulance while Yusuke helps Haru deal with the crowd, “What the hell happened?!” Ryuji asks him.

“I’d… rather not get into details with a bullet in my gut…” Ren groans out, “Rain check…?”

“This isn’t the time for jokes!” Ann berates him and Ren tries to grin through the pain.

“It’s making me feel better.”

“Ambulance is on the way,” Makoto informs him as she crouches down next to him, “It’ll be here soon. Ryuji, keep pressure on that,” she points to Ren’s hand that covered his wound, “But don’t move him around too much, we don’t know what might make the bleeding worse.”

Ryuji does as he’s told while the crowd is pushed back by Haru, Yusuke and some of the waiters that came to help. The politician is gone now, either trying to recover from what just happened or wanting no part in the explanation he’ll have to give to the police once they show up, but what he does is beyond Ren now. He did his job.

It’s not long before the paramedics show up, tending to his wound at first before putting him on a stretcher and wheeling him out of the place.

“Can’t we go with him?!” Futaba shouts behind but a paramedic shakes his head.

“Only family. You can come see your friend later,” he replies curtly before following the others and leaving with Ren.

They put him into an ambulance while Ren continues to wince and groan in pain with every movement made on the stretcher. The doors of the ambulance shut, and soon, they’re out on the road.

He keeps clutching to his shirt, right up until a hand smacks his own away from it.

“You’re a terrible actor,” the paramedic who owned the hand says, and helps Ren sit up, “you should take it off before you get that shirt stained any further.”

“I’m not faking it,” Ren complains, taking off his jacket and shirt, followed by the slowly emptying bag of sheep’s blood he had taped there, “I thought you were going to use blanks and I was supposed to just puncture the bag... could've warned me about the rubber bullets”

Akechi pulls down his face mask, then removes it completely, followed by the cap on his head. He takes the elastic off that was pulling his hair up and runs a hand through his hair until it's normal again, “Considering your acting abilities, it was for the best that it truly surprised you,” he looks down at where Ren got shot, “Of course the bruises will hurt for a while, but considering you’ll have to convince everyone else you were shot, it should help.”

“It’s still a dick move,” Ren snaps at him, rubbing at his side.

Akechi shrugs and hands Ren’s jacket over to another one of the ‘paramedics’, “For the sake of this mission, there will be times I won’t be completely honest with you, and if you’re uncomfortable with that I can still turn things around and work on this without your help. Are you ready for that sort of commitment?”

He claimed it was a choice, but it sure as hell didn’t feel like it.

“Sure,” Ren replies while Akechi turns around and messes around with something, “So what now?”

“Now,” Akechi turns around with a rag in his hand, “I’m going to chloroform you.”


	6. Hospitalised

When he starts to open his eyes, Ren is only certain of one thing.

He feels like _ass_.

He wouldn’t have any idea where he was considering Akechi drugged him. He couldn’t have any idea what time it was considering Akechi _drugged him_. All he knows is he’s lying in some bed in some room with a shirt that wasn’t covering his rear for whatever reason because _Akechi drugged him_.

The fundraiser, that definitely happened… at some point. He remembers getting shot. Okay, well it wasn’t as bad as that one time Akechi tried to shoot him in the head, or tried to shoot him in the engine room or…

What the hell was Akechi’s problem with him anyway?

And why did most of their interactions result in Ren getting shot at?

If he wanted to torture Ren some more, he could at least be honest about it. Now he’s got his own team and conspiracy set out to do just that. He thinks. It’s probably all the drugs in his head reminding him of how messed up this whole situation is.

Then again, he knew he wasn't influenced by any drugs or alcohol when he made his decision to rejoin Akechi.

_Anyway_, the fundraiser. Getting shot, Makoto calling for an ambulance only for Akechi to show up instead, his friends, none the wiser, letting their former enemy whisk him away to god knows what location.

Probably a hospital.

He hears a door sliding on the other side of the room and sees a nurse walk in with a clipboard in her hands.

Definitely a hospital.

Looking over he can see the kanji written on her clipboard and at least he’s happy to know he’s still in the country. Now it was a matter of figuring out where in the country.

“Good morning, Kurusu-kun. How are you feeling this morning?” She asks, and Ren has to assume she’s talking to him. No one else was in the room but he sure as hell wasn’t Kurusu. He’ll play along for since he has no idea what mess Akechi dragged him into now.

“Horrible,” he doesn’t bother lying about that while he rubs his head, “I… don’t remember much of what happened. I got shot… but that’s the last thing I remember,” well, there was that brief bit in the fake ambulance where _Akechi Goro fucking drugged him_, but since the Detective Prince has been missing for three years now, he feels that dropping that information on the nurse might result in him getting a quick visit to the psychiatric ward of this hospital… wherever that was.

The nurse opens up the blinds of his room, revealing Tokyo’s specific landscape. This was good, he was still in the city. On the opposite side of that city but at least getting back home wasn’t going to be too expensive. He’d get the money back from Akechi… hopefully.

Though it wasn’t like he could just call the guy up and tell him he owed him money.

“That’s normal with such a traumatic event,” the nurse informs him while she looks over his vitals. They’re fine, obviously. The worst he got is maybe some minor internal bleeding from the rubber bullet, but he wasn’t about to tell this random nurse that, “Our minds often block out memories like that to save us from the possible shock it could cause us.”

Nope. Ren’s still pretty sure it’s the drugs.

“You were brought here alone, and we were able to contact your brother,” she informs him even though it makes no sense at first. He doesn’t have siblings, and he’s fairly certain his emergency contact is Sojiro anyway. The man might be willing to fake being his father, but he doubts the nurse is stupid enough to believe he was his brother…

_Oh_.

Because that’s not who they contacted at all.

Except there’s no chance they would contact Akechi either. He’s been gone for a while but considering his massive media presence three years ago, him rocking up to a hospital and acting like he has a brother would raise more than just a couple of eyebrows… not to mention destroy their whole mission.

Amamiya Ren didn’t have a brother either, but apparently this Kurusu did, “What did he say?”

“He said he was busy, and to let him know when you’ve woken up. We have people trying to get a hold of him now,” she informs him and finally stops walking all around the room while checking on everything, “I’ll be back with breakfast soon. For now, if you have to use the bathroom do not hesitate to contact us with this button-,” she says, lifting up a remote next to Ren’s bed, “Otherwise avoid sudden movements if possible as your stitches may rip.”

Stitches? Oh god they didn’t actually shoot him in his unconscious state, did they?

He kinda wants to check now out of sheer curiosity.

Who the hell was authorising this???

“Will do,” He nods and the nurse leaves. As soon as she closes the door, Ren pulls on his gown and finds a bandage on his wound. He lifts it up… and doesn’t really know why he’s disappointed. The bandage has some dark red liquid on it, and there is a ‘wound’ within all of his bruising, but he knows it’s just make up. Very impressive make up that’s still managed to stay on his body, but it’s still just make up.

What? He didn’t honestly expect Akechi to experiment on his body or something, did he?

The better question was why he found that disappointing in the first place.

He covers it back up, one mystery solved, and wonders if he has time to solve another. The remainder of his suit lies across a chair, just his pants, underwear, shoes, socks and jacket, no tie or shirt. They probably threw it out. Shame. He needed a fitted suit.

He stands up, knowing that it wouldn’t actually hurt him, but the wires monitoring his vitals keep him from reaching his clothes. Crap. His wallet was probably in there with all the information showing that he wasn’t Kurusu.

Akechi probably took care of that.

Hopefully.

He gets back in bed once he decides that he’s fighting a losing battle with the wires, and just in time for the nurse to get back with his breakfast, “Your brother has come here with a couple of your friends. I asked him to wait until you’ve eaten your breakfast.”

Ren shakes his head, but thanks her while she sets up a tray for him and lifts up his bed, “No, it’s fine. I’d like the company,” it was better than staying in the dark about what was going on for this long. The stress was going to eat him alive before he got to eat his food.

The nurse nods and walks out, switching places with the three people who show up, all of them looking far too casual than Ren ever expected to see.

The first to walk through is who Ren assumes is his ‘brother’, the same guy from yesterday, now in just an orange hoodie and jeans and throwing Ren completely off. These guys were spies, and obviously showing up in a full suit to a hospital would bring attention to them so it makes complete sense he wouldn’t wear one now… but seeing him looking so unprofessional is so uncanny.

The next to walk through is a blonde woman in a black turtleneck and white trousers. He’s never seen her before, but he doubts he'll even find out why she came here in the first place.

The last is Akechi, wearing a face mask again so no one recognises him, but the casual white T-shirt, blue jumper and dark jeans combo would’ve thrown even Ren off if he didn’t know he was coming in.

He refuses to admit that he misses the dorky sweater vest.

“Hey bro,” Ren smirks at the first guy, who to his surprise actually smiles and shakes his head.

“You catch on quick,” the guy replies while he walks over to the window on the other side of the, the woman staying at the door, “Sorry for shooting you.”

“I’ve had worse,” Ren shrugs it off while Akechi takes off his face mask and walks to the end of his bed. He kinda wants to be angry at Akechi for… well a bunch of things from last night, but the best he can bring himself to do is ignore what he’s doing at the end of his bed while starting on his breakfast. Good thing too now that he notices just how starved he is.

Akechi sets his chart back down, looks at his two co-workers, who nod at him. The woman leaves the room while the man stays and keeps an eye out through the window, “Yamazuki thinks he owes you his life now, and he’s on his way here to meet Kurusu Akira and settle that debt. We’ll be using that to our advantage, of course.”

Akira… that was actually a pretty decent name. Ren expected a lot worse.

“What do you want me to tell him? He was kind of a jerk yesterday, I don’t know how much he’ll listen to me now,” Ren admits, picking up his orange juice.

“He’ll offer compensation, most likely in the form of fame or fortune” Akechi tells him, although Ren can only assume it’s a guess. How would they know all of this? Akechi was a good detective but he was clairvoyant, “You’ll decline it and ask for something else.”

“And if he thinks I’m in over my head?”

“You’ll convince him you’re not,” Akechi rolls his eyes, “Three years ago you were able to cheat death and outsmart the entire country, myself unfortunately included. Has our time apart taken away those impeccable skills of yours? The improvisation? The charm? The wit?”

The worst part was, Akechi wouldn't be saying that if he didn't believe Ren was slipping on any of those things. It stung, and Ren hated that it was exactly why Akechi asked him that at all.

Even now he's still being tested.

No.

It's been a while since he was able to show off his skills in front of people, but it didn't mean those skills had vanished.

Joker was still here.

_He_ was still Joker.

And Akechi was right. What was the point in even bringing him along if he was just going to be his puppet? He could’ve chosen anyone else to just do as he says, and he knew Ren’s history of following orders. Or lack thereof.

“I’ll think of something,” Ren mutters and drinks his orange juice. There’s more he wants to ask, but he figures his time with Akechi is limited, so he tries to make it quick, “I have a couple of questions I have to know the answer to… it’s for the sake of this whole thing,” he adds quickly before Akechi can deny him.

“I can’t say I’ll answer them all, but go on,” Akechi indulges him.

“What if my friends come in before Yamazuki does?”

“We accounted for that,” Akechi speaks as a matter of fact, “They’re on the other side of the city, waiting for you to wake up in a different hospital. Once Yamazuki leaves we’ll be taking you there.”

That made sense. The hospital probably already knew about this transfer, and while his friends were probably worried for him, at least they won’t be involved in any of this, “Why did you drug me?”

Akechi huffs and folds his arms. Oh so _he_ was allowed to be annoyed with Ren? “I’m surprised I have to explain this to you, but very well. For reasons that should be clear, almost no one in this hospital knows what is happening. Everyone thinks you’ve been shot and had surgery to remove a bullet. Now, after blood loss and stress, as well as surgery, you should be unconscious. Can you fake that on all of the equipment they’re using to monitor you?” He asks, looking around the machines he was hooked up to, “I could have let the doctors here to give you anaesthesia, however we had no guarantee on how you’d react to unknown chemicals being injected into you, considering your previous panic attack. You were knocked unconscious to avoid suspicion, left in an empty room for a few hours for your 'surgery', then brought here once it was over, along with your identification.”

It amazes Ren just how much Akechi managed to spin drugging him into doing the right thing… Because yeah, it made sense, he should’ve figured that out. He feels kinda bad now for thinking Akechi was having fun causing him this much pain when it’s clear he’s trying to prevent him from getting more hurt than he has to, “Right… um… final question then; can I have your phone number? Or _a_ phone number? It’ll be nice not to get kidnapped again or have cryptic messages sent to me when you next need me to do something…”

“Sir,” the man at the window says before Akechi can reply, “the minister is here. We should get going.”

“Then you know what to do. Tell her to wait for me,” Akechi orders the other man, who follows through and steps out. Akechi turns back to Ren, readjusting his face mask, “Show me that you’ve earned it. Gain Yamazuki’s trust. Perhaps then you’ll be worthy of it once more.”

That hurt more than it should’ve.

Akechi leaves, but Ren wishes he could stay. Not to spend more time with the other, it wasn’t quite the same as it used to be when he’s got one stranger in the room with him and another on the other side of the door probably listening in.

He just liked to show off, and an audience that was giving him the opportunity to prove himself was exactly what he wanted.

Akechi was going to find out in his own way- presumably how he found out Yamazuki was coming over in the first place- but… it wasn’t satisfying enough.

Ren needed Akechi to know that he could still shine.

Ren could still steal the show.

He just wanted Akechi to acknowledge it.

* * *

He’s already got his hand in his pocket when his phone starts to vibrate, so Akechi is quick to pull it out while the three of them sit near the entrance of the hospital and watch as Yamazuki and his men enter the building. The number shows up as unknown, but he already knows who it is, “I was under the impression that the whole purpose of having your pet tag along was for _her_ to update you.”

“She’s not a pet,” the woman on the other side answers in a bitter tone, “If anything, she’s there to both protect you and make sure you don’t go off script. I’d rather hear what’s going on from you directly.”

Akechi sighs and looks at his two companions. They nod and he gets off his seat, leaves the hospital and quickly ducks into an alley to continue the conversation, first looking to check no one was here to eavesdrop on him, “Yamazuki’s shadow has no idea about us or our involvement. He’s informed the rest of the conspiracy about the hit and to no surprise they believe it’s an attempt to kill off their members. However, he doesn’t seem to think Amamiya has any part in this. Everything is going according to plan.”

“What about the project?”

“Nothing,” Akechi replies in a disappointed tone, “Thus far his shadow was unable to tell us anything about it. I suggest we inform Amamiya of it so he can keep an ear out for this.”

“Negative,” The woman answers back, “The less he knows right now, the better. There is no telling how he’ll behave once he’s undercover. If we inform him of this, then we run the risk of him asking about things he should have no knowledge of.”

Akechi groans, quietly and far from the phone because he knows exactly what this means for him, “So, you're going to send me to Mementos to gather intel. I’ve already informed you that staking out the Metaverse isn’t going to work. It didn’t before. Let me do this my way-.”

“Through psychotic breakdowns?” She cuts him off.

“Through detective work,” he replies and furrows his eyebrows, “A week. That’s all I need.”

There’s a pause on the other side, somewhat hopeful considering Akechi was certain he’d be denied once again. The woman on the other side sighs, “Very well. You have one week to find out what Project Isaac is. If you have nothing by Sunday, I’ll be forced to send you back to Mementos until our enemy reveals themselves.”

Great. Now he just needs to think about how the hell he’s going to get any evidence.

“I’ll send him off to check on Yamazuki’s shadow while I make sure Amamiya is transferred,” he hears a hum on the other side, followed by her hanging up. He turns back, finds his co-workers then points out the door with his thumb, “The plan hasn’t changed. Keep me updated about his condition.”

The man nods and leaves, however the woman stays behind, unmoving from her seat near the reception. Akechi sighs and shakes his head, “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“I am not babysitting you,” the woman replies without looking at him, “My role in this is to stay by your side until Amamiya is transferred. I will not leave before that happens unless our leader contacts me personally.”

It’s times like these he misses the lonely work of the Detective Prince.

Even with Shido's orders, he felt less like a dog on a leash than he does now.


	7. Akira Kurusu

“Akira Kurusu?” A man’s voice brings Ren’s attention back to the door once more. As expected, it’s Yamazuki, here to make a half-hearted show of appreciation for saving his life. He’s sure the politician would rather be literally anywhere else. If he weren’t here for media purposes, as shown by the man behind him taking meticulous notes, he probably wouldn’t have shown up at all.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Akira replies, sitting up in his bed properly, remembering to fake a wince. Well, it’s not that hard. He still felt pretty rough from the bruising the rubber bullet gave him and all the drugs, “You’re the minister from the fundraiser, the one I saved… Minister Yamazuki, correct? I apologise, my head still isn’t in the right place…”

The minister shakes his head and walks over to the side of his bed, “Ah, no need for such formalities, young man. After everything you’ve been through, I can’t ask of you to act as you should have during the fundraiser.”

Yep.

Still a dick.

“Of course,” Akira nods, and glances over to the man taking notes of all of this, “I’m grateful that you came here… in exchange for, well…” he looks down at where his ‘wound’ is and then at all the machines, “I’d like you to listen to what I wanted to say the other night. I ask for nothing more than that,” ugh. How did Akechi manage to speak like this every day?

“In private,” Akira insists when a silence falls over the room and neither of the men answer him.

The minister looks over to the journalist and nods towards the door, “I can’t deny him his wishes. I would appreciate it if you could remain just outside the door.”

The journalist nods and walks out, and only once the door is closed does Akira get straight down to business, “I wanted to discuss the mental shutdowns. Your group has been causing them again, haven’t they?”

“I… excuse me?” The politician does a double take and his fake smile disappears from his face.

Akira’s own face becomes far more serious, “I haven’t figured out how yet, considering your previous puppet has been missing for the past three years, but I’ve managed to get the rest of the pieces together. You used the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns to get Masayoshi Shido elected, and you’re using mental shutdowns to keep the masses in line.”

The man examines Akira’s face, but Akira doesn’t back down and stares right back at him, “Such talk is a dangerous thing, Kurusu. If you know all of this, you must know how easy it has been for us to dispose of anyone who got a little too far in their investigation. I suggest you keep such things to yourself.”

“Of course,” Akira nods, “I’m no fool. I’m not bringing it up because I wish to call you out or have you arrested… I admire it, in fact. Goro Akechi only got so far before he fell. I don’t know what happened to him and honestly, I don’t much care for finding out either, but I want to take his place. You need someone who can cause psychotic breakdowns, right? Whoever your current hitman is, they aren’t very effective.”

“And you are?” The minister asks, “You’re not looking to be the next detective prince, are you? We have no need for anyone who might bring in such media attention to themselves with Shido in charge and the Phantom Thieves gone.”

Akira laughs- it’s fake, just as everything else is in this set up, but the image of him on stage in front of those Tv hosts in Akechi’s old school uniform helps it sound a little more real, “I’m not in high school anymore. I don’t need the approval of the masses to confirm that I’m good at what I do,” _just Akechi’s approval, _he adds internally and feels like punching himself for it. He can do that after all of this, “One day I’d like to run for public office myself. This is just a way to achieve that, through the right connections and right extracurriculars.”

“An internship of sorts?” The minister fills in and Akira nods silently.

It takes some time for the minister to consider his proposal, before finally taking out his phone. He types something in, then shows the student a photo of a man in a business suit, “You have ten days to dispose of this man. If your dedicated enough, I’m certain your injuries won’t get in the way. I don’t think I need to be explicit about what will happen if you fail us.”

“What did he do?” Akira asks like a complete idiot.

“Does it matter?”

_Yes, _“No.”

“Good,” the man puts his phone back into his pocket, “I must discuss this with my colleagues; however you are correct. Should you complete this task, we will contact you.”

Great, more random contacts… except the problem was he couldn’t have this guy show up to his real address where he was definitely not Akira Kurusu and where the chance of him finding out that all this was fake was far too high. Not to mention the worst-case scenario of the conspiracy discovering who he and his friends really are.

“You’ll need my phone number for that, won’t you?” Akira asks quickly before the man can leave, “I have classes, but I can skip them if necessary.”

“I won’t be contacting you during business hours,” _oh so now they have a moral code, _“But I suppose it would be easiest. Very well,” just before leaving, the man saves Akira’s real phone number into his phone and bids him goodbye.

Except once it’s all over, Ren’s overcoming with a troubling thought- his phone number is going to be listed off as one belonging to someone completely different than Akira Kurusu… great.

At least he has one bit of good news to tell Akechi.

That is, if killing off a man was good news at all.

* * *

It takes five days for Akechi to contact him again, cutting the deadline far too close for Ren's liking.

Then again, Ren understood why Akechi would have stayed away from hospital he was moved to considering his friends decided to take shifts on who would spend time with him and barely left any space for anyone else to come in either.

The only time he finds himself really alone is after visiting hours are over, and the day he’s released from the hospital. It’s the week before exams, but given the circumstances, Ren’s been excused from his own and told the others to study and not to worry about him.

Good thing too, considering that when Ren is dismissed from the hospital he finds Akechi just outside, leaning against a car, phone out and sunglasses on in a poor attempt to disguise himself, “Do you honestly think that’s going to work?”

“If no one is looking for me, then yes,” Akechi replies without looking up from his phone, “The more generic my clothing is, the more likely that no one will look in my direction. A mask or a balaclava may conceal my identity, but it would draw too much attention.”

“So you decided suit and sunglasses was the right way to go?”

“I’d like to keep this sun out of my eyes. A suit is generic enough that it fits into most places. I can walk through the street like this, or an office building, or a train station and everyone would believe that a dead individual such as myself belongs there. Tell me, do you see anyone looking in our direction?” He asks as he types something into his phone. Ren already knows the answer to his question so he doesn’t bother looking around, “Enough loitering,” Akechi says, finally tearing his eyes away from his phone and putting his phone into his pocket, “Get in the car,” he orders him before opening the door to the drivers seat and getting in himself.

Ren puts his bag with his belongings in the back of the car before joining Akechi in the passenger seat. The former detective pulls out of the hospital before speaking, “We’re going to the Diet building.”

“That sound like a terrible idea,” Ren’s mouth says before he can even think, so he elaborates, “Isn’t the point of me going undercover to avoid you from having to ever cross paths with Shido again?”

“Oh I’ve no doubt I’ll run into him sooner or later under some circumstances or others,” Akechi replies nonchalantly but Ren knows better. It’s a façade, obviously, and it worries him what those implications might mean, “Today however is not that day. Shido and some of his associates are out of the country. Fortunately, it seems that everyone who knew I was a part of the conspiracy is away from the Diet today. We’re using this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Speaking of which,” Akechi stops at a light and extends his gloved hand out to Ren, “phone.”

Ren gets his phone out but doesn’t hand it over, so Akechi makes a grab for it and takes it off his hands. He pulls out a flash drive from his pocket, plugs it into the phone and taps at some pop ups a couple of times before giving him back his phone, “Leave it in while it downloads. Anyone looking at your phone records will be redirected to a fake account with a fake address and a fake name, leading further to fake documentation about Akira Kurusu the politics student.”

“You knew about all of that?”

“My associates planted bugs in the room while you were focusing on me,” Akechi informs him, “I didn’t want you to know we were listening in case that hindered your performance,” the phone pings once the program downloaded, just as the light turns green, “We altered the records as soon as possible, hopefully the conspiracy didn’t look into you before Yamazuki got back to his office. However, that is not what today is about.”

“Two birds with one stone… one of the birds is the guy I was told to kill, isn’t it?”

Akechi nods once, “We won’t be killing him, otherwise I wouldn’t be bringing you along nor would I be doing this in broad daylight. However we do need to make the conspiracy believe that he’s been targeted by you via mental shutdown. My group will be taking care of that. The rest… well that’s confidential.”

“So what am I doing here?”

“You’re staying in the car,” Akechi tells him and it is disappointing to hear but not entirely surprising. If he’s going to be fake killing for these people, he can’t just show up to their workplace before he’s even completed his first task unless he has a damn good reason to be there. Breaking and entering didn’t quite cut that, “I need you to keep a look out for me while I go investigate.”

“Couldn’t you have dragged one of your buddies along?”

“No,” Akechi answers curtly.

Oh right.

This was just another test, wasn’t it?

“Fine, but how am I supposed to keep an eye out if I’m not even leaving the car?”

Akechi parks the car a couple of streets away from the Diet and turns off the engine. He reaches behind Ren’s seat and hands him the laptop in his hand, “Password is OPPIHLPNC3,” he tells Ren as the other types it in. He points to a program, “I’ll call you once I’m ready and I’ll need you to open that. It will link to the camera I set up that will help you see if anyone is about to come into the office I’ll be searching.”

“Shido’s?”

“Your targets,” Akechi corrects him, “Keep me informed at all times, even if nothing is happening. I won’t be responding, but I will be listening. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.”

Before leaving the car, Akechi pulls off his sunglasses and reaches into the side pocket in the door of the car, his glasses being replaced by a face mask. He puts the face mask on and opens the door of the car, “I worry that your rebellious nature of yours might tempt you into leaving the car should I get in trouble. For both of our sakes, don’t do that. I can afford to be imprisoned or killed, you certainly can’t.”

Ren knows better than to ask him what that was supposed to mean, so instead he stays silent while the other goes behind the car and pulls out a briefcase from the trunk. Ren looks in the back mirror and watches Akechi go in the direction of the Diet building and disappear around the corner.

The minutes pass by agonisingly slow, Ren only used to this kind of pace when he was studying for an exam or in a monotonous lecture. Every time he looks at his phone the hour always seems to be the same. Maybe it was a bit much to expect that every day of this would be like being in a spy movie, or even that it would bring the same kind of action it did when he got ‘shot’, but was it really necessary for Akechi to test his patience like this?

Unless…

_I worry that your rebellious nature of yours might tempt you into leaving the car should I get in trouble. For both of our sakes, don’t do that._

That asshole wasn’t testing his patience.

He was testing his loyalty.

He knew Ren would hate being on surveillance, maybe even stop paying attention, and should anything happen, he’d jump out of the car and rush in at a moments notice to save Akechi.

Part of him hopes he’s caught.

The smarter part knows that it would probably be the end of his adventure if it was his fault the other was found out.

His phone buzzes about fifteen minutes after Akechi’s program finishes downloading on his phone and it’s a number his phone doesn’t recognise, but at least it’s not blocked. He answers the phone and clicks on the program on the laptop, showing him an empty hallway, “is this your way of giving me your number?”

There’s no answer on the other side, only the sound of someone shuffling through papers, “Oh I guess talking would give away you being in there and all. Um… well, thanks, if this is _your_ number. I’m really hoping this means less kidnapping me.”

There’s more silence that follows, and even for Ren of all people it’s weird. He knows why but being on a phone call like this just makes him want to talk and fill in the space. So, he does just that, still watching the screen for any signs of people coming into the office.

“This is probably the worst time to bring up, uh, well, anything involving us really, but maybe one day when you’re not busy being a super spy or whatever, we could… talk? Or not talk. Sojiro let me take the chessboard back to my place so I can always just make you some coffee and we can sit in silence and play chess?”

On the screen, he watches Akechi leave the office, and soon the camera cuts to black, “I guess that means you have what you need. Um, so…”

“Are you suggesting we fraternise?” Akechi’s voice suddenly sounds from his phone, “Last time I did that my life’s work was destroyed and I ended up dead.”

“You’re alive now, aren’t you?”

“Sure,” Akechi scoffs, “You’re right. No one even remembers who Akechi Goro is, I couldn’t finnish high school, I can’t ever hope to go to college, find a regular job or even leave the country by any legal means. I own nothing and I can’t even buy anything for myself, and every minute of my life is still somehow dictated by someone other than myself. If you call that a life, then yes, I suppose I am in a sense, alive.”

Huh, so maybe they weren’t quite at chess and coffee yet.

“I appreciate the honesty,” Ren says after a few awkward seconds of silence, “Fine, if it helps, I’m not looking to be your bestie or rival or whatever your version of friendship is at this point. I want a partnership, and we both know just how terrible we were as partners when we weren’t being honest with each other.”

“I’d say we handled Niijima’s palace quite well all things considered,” Akechi’s tone reverts to his usual calmer one.

“You tried to shoot me and failed, I got drugged and beaten by a bunch of cops. I wouldn’t call that a win.”

The conversation with Akechi at least makes time go by a lot faster than when he was stuck in the car on his own waiting for the other to make his move, and he knows as much when Akechi hangs up on him and opens the trunk to put his briefcase inside, then gets back into the front seat of the car and pulls off the face mask, “One cup of coffee at your place, thirty minutes. Any more time would be a waste.”

“I thought your life was-,” Akechi glares at him, so Ren stops, “Okay, um, I guess you tell me when you’re available and I’ll work it into my schedule.”

Akechi stops his glaring and starts the car, “Will your friends be home right now?”

“Makoto might,” Ren shrugs, “She’s got the keys to my place so it’s not impossible. You can just drop me off at the nearest station if you’re worried about getting caught.”

Akechi shakes his head, “I can at least do you the courtesy of dropping you off in your neighbourhood, though it may be a few streets away from your apartment. Why does Niijima have your keys?” Akechi asks, changing the subject out of nowhere, “I recall you and Ryuji being far closer back in high school.”

“Cos she’s my girlfriend?” Ren says questioningly, “I thought you were spying on me, did that never come up?”

Akechi shakes his head again, “_I _wasn’t spying on you, all I know is that you’re still close with the rest of the Phantom Thieves and that you study business, you pay for it yourself and have no contact with your parents, instead occasionally relying on Sakura-san to help you sort out paperwork. The people I work for must have thought that your private affairs weren’t of importance. I disagree.”

“You… disagree?” Ren raises an eyebrow, “Although yeah gotta say that doesn’t sound promising to me.”

“Not about the state of your relationship,” Akechi smirks, “To be honest I couldn’t care less about who you sleep with, however in this case it would have been better to know that you were in such a close relationship with her. I suggested to come to your apartment for coffee, and its only by chance that I find out that’s not possible. Only now do I know to stay away from your apartment unless I want Niijima to discover that I’m not currently a corpse at the bottom of a cognitive ship.”

“So… no coffee?”

“Not unless you’re certain she won’t be around.”

“I’m not going to dump her to have coffee with you.”

“Hmm,” Akechi hums, driving into his neighbourhood, “A shame, really. Not for my sake. I think you could both do better.”

“And what’s the supposed to mean?” Ren furrows his eyebrows as Akechi pulls to a stop.

“Would you like the long version or the short version?”

“Considering you just parked the car…” Ren trails off, reaching behind him for his bag.

Akechi doesn’t even look his way when he starts to list off his reasons, “You’re an idiot, she’s an honour student. You’re an adrenaline-junkie, she’s boring. You’re rebellious and were it not for the Phantom Thieves, she’d just be a good-girl pushover. Then again, I suppose they say opposites-attract.”

“This was the short version?” Ren cocks an eyebrow but then shakes his head, “Well I’m hardly going to take relationship advice from you of all people,” he opens the door and steps out, “Despite… _that, _the offer for coffee still stands. As long as there’s less shitting on my relationship and more, I don’t know, whatever it is former friends/rivals/enemies talk about over coffee.”

“I’ll text you when I’m next available,” Akechi waves him off, and as soon as the door is shut, he drives back the way he came from.

Akechi infuriated him, nothing unusual there, and yet… Ren was still somehow looking forward to the coffee date.

Meeting, not date.

Great, now the bastard was in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello once again! Sorry for the hiatus, had a lot of work then ended up getting into another fandom.  
I don't plan on dropping this story at all, I'm actually really enjoying writing it when I do but I don't know how often I'll be able to update it, at least while I still have a lot of work ahead of me.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Goro and Ren bantering has become maybe one of my most favourite things to write recently.


	8. Shadows

“The card was delivered, all that’s left is the act itself,” Akechi says when he walks into his boss’ office, briefcase in hand. He sets it down on her desk and opens it, “As for files... well you can have a look through them yourself, but I doubt you’ll find anything of interest.”

His boss picks up one of the files Akechi had collected, one that was very heavily redacted and brings it closer to her face, “It does seem to confirm our assumption that they were meddling with Shadows and have an inside man,” she says after briefly flipping through it. She hands it to Akechi for him to read himself, with one page open in particular.

“They’re running tests on their persona user?” Akechi asks, eyebrows furrowed, “Their inside man doesn’t seem to be quite up to the task, considering they’ve failed most of these tests.”

“And yet, no name is listed,” His boss sighs, “I suppose trying to find out who exactly is this inside man through files or a joint investigation with the police would prove fruitless.”

“The police are useless and don’t have any knowledge of the metaverse,” Akechi scoffs without looking up from the file in his hand, “Regardless, you won’t get a name like that. It’s not going to be an adult since they’re harder to control and manipulate, but _most_ politicians wouldn’t use their children as test subjects either.”

“Most?” His boss cocks an eyebrow.

“Not their legitimate children… unless they’re heartless enough and uncaring, but I have some doubts” Akechi shakes his head, “And any illegitimate child wouldn’t be kept on record, they would’ve made sure of that. Which leaves us with orphanages and abandoned children which I can already tell you is a dead end.”

“So I take it you have a lead?” His boss asks, leaning back in her chair, “What do you know?”

“I told you, I was going to look into this like a detective would,” He begins his explanation, “I stopped trying to look for any mention of anyone named Isaac and started looking into why someone would call a project that in the first place,” he pulls his phone out of his pocket and opens up his browser, “and since we’re in the 21st century, I googled it.”

It’s barely noticeable so Akechi can’t tell for certain, but he thinks he hears her groan at that remark. Regardless, he continues, “I came across Isaac Newton however that seemed irrelevant since I don’t believe the conspiracy is setting out to change the laws of gravity via the Metaverse. However, it may have to do something with the biblical Isaac.”

“Hence your hypothesis that our metaverse user is a child?”

Akechi shakes his head, “No, I hypothesized that before coming up with this theory, although some of what I’m about to say contradicts my previous hypothesis; Despite being nearly being killed by his father, Isaac remained extremely loyal to him. I may have made presumptions based on my own experiences that the metaverse user is someone who was being forced into this. Perhaps, it is someone extremely loyal to them, someone who’s willing to undergo experimentation and still stay by the side of the conspiracy.”

His boss hums as she thinks over his insinuations, “Was that not your role when you once worked for Shido? A loyal dog that would die for his master should the need arise?”

Akechi clears his throat before replying, “That was who I played up to be, yes. However, I came in as an outsider, someone who conveniently had the power the conspiracy needed. At the time, Shido may have had his suspicions but he didn’t bring me into his circle because he knew I was his son. Perhaps this is not someone who is merely playing the part, but has a genuine connection that makes them completely loyal to the conspiracy? Unfortunately, that doesn’t bring me any closer to giving you a name, it simply opens our investigation to new suggestions.”

Instead of praising him or commenting further on the matter, his boss reaches into her cupboard before pulling out a phone, which she hands over to Akechi. He picks it up, confused, “Is there a problem with my current device?”

His boss shakes her head, “No, I want you to use two phones from now on. This is merely a prototype. Our research department created an app that will allow you to view any suspicious activity in the metaverse; that is, it will send you a notification any time someone activates the MetaNav.”

Akechi looks over the phone, then smirks back at his boss, “Of course I’m not the only one with access to this, am I? You would never trust me with so much power, would you?”

She ignores his tone, instead giving somewhat of an explanation that Akechi doesn’t quite believe, “As you are a field agent and closest to this case, giving you access to this technology made the most sense.”

“By which you mean I’m your most disposable unit that you can throw at the enemy because you know I’ll charge in as soon as this goes off… like the loyal dog you think that I am,” Akechi quickly concludes. He turns around and pockets the phone, “Not that I have any choice in the matter regardless but know that I’m only doing this out of purely selfish reasons.”

His boss chuckles lightly and shakes her head, “I don’t care if you lie to me about what your reasons are, but as someone who has a vested interest in your well-being, don’t lie to yourself. If this was purely for self-preservation, you would only need to do as I say, and yet here you are, going out of your way to solve this.”

Akechi narrows his eyes at her, because yeah, she was absolutely right. He only had to follow her orders and he’d be able to walk around on the streets of Shibuya as a mostly free man, rather than rot in jail or, most likely, be a corpse in an undisclosed location, yet here he was, being a detective just to solve this case faster, making his own suggestions as to how to solve this.

“…I’ll be getting back to business. You know where to find me so feel free to send your lapdogs to spy on me whenever you feel like. Oh, and I’m bringing _him_ along with me as well. I’ll do as you suggested once the mission is over on our end,” he waves her off nonchalantly as he leaves her office and makes his way down to the garage.

Once he’s inside his car, he pulls out his phone and quickly types in a few text messages.

> **Meet me in Shibuya station.**
> 
> **I’m on my way already.**
> 
> **Don’t make me wait too long.**

* * *

Ren waves to him when he gets to the station, school bag in hand even though Akechi was certain he was still in exam week. Maybe he was studying for exams he had to miss due to his hospital visit? Akechi didn’t care to ask, “Rough day?”

“How could you possibly tell?” Akechi asks, semi-sarcastically as he leans against the wall behind him, arms folded, “If you must know, I had a rather unpleasant conversation with my boss where I once again confirmed for her that I’m merely a pawn in whatever plan she has.”

“And it hit a little too close to home?”

“You could say that,” Akechi replies and takes out his phone, “You left the cat behind, didn’t you?”

“He mostly just stays with Futaba and Sojiro now,” Ren shrugs, “Besides, I know better than to bring him with me when you call… text, whatever. What do you want me to do today?”

Akechi pulls out his phone and opens up the MetaNav, “Over the past three years the organisation I work for has used the Phantom Thieves MO to their advantage. If they needed someone’s heart changed, they sent them a calling card similar to those that you fabricated and had someone change their heart in the Metaverse. They have used it in the past to do… less wholesome things which I am not at liberty to disclose at this time but today we’ll be doing what you should already be familiar with.”

“Is this my target?” Ren asks him, “Changing his heart isn’t going to save his life.”

“We’re changing his cognition,” Akechi shakes his head and Ren’s eyes widen. The former hitman is quick to dispel his concerns, “I’m not going to cause a psychotic breakdown, and in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve not used that power since I used it on myself. We need to let him know he’s in imminent danger and he needs to cooperate with us.”

It’s still manipulation, and Ren’s not sure how comfortable he is with the idea. It’s messy, very messy in his mind and definitely not something the Phantom Thieves would agree to do, but if this guy was going to be murdered otherwise…

Maybe suggesting he work with Akechi dodgy organisation to save himself isn’t the worst alternative here.

“I don’t like this,” Ren shakes his head, “But fine, I’ll join you. Except, uh… you didn’t tell me we were doing this, so I didn’t bring any weapons with me.”

“Don’t worry,” Akechi kicks the briefcase that was on the floor behind him, “I have us covered.”

With the tap of his finger, the world around them blurs and the people slowly disappear from sight. As the world around them changes, so do their clothes, with Joker’s familiar coat draping across Ren’s shoulders and Akechi black mask covering his face. When everything stops moving, Akechi turns around and opens up his briefcase. He pulls out two guns and hands one to Ren while holstering the other, then pulls out a dagger and gives that to Ren as well, “I’ll be taking both of those back once the mission is done.”

“Are they-.”

“Yours aren’t real,” Akechi shakes his head and turns back to the briefcase. With his back turned to Ren, the other can’t see what he’s doing but as soon as he turns around, he’s holding a long, serrated sword so Ren can only guess he was assembling it.

Unless he had some sort of bigger-on-the-inside briefcase technology which Ren wouldn’t even be surprised by at this point.

Whoever he worked for seemed to have deep enough pockets.

“Why do you need them back then?”

“Because your gun and dagger aren’t something you’ll find in a back-alley model gun shop,” Akechi replies, “The gun used to be a real gun but they’re out of commission in the real world. You aren’t going to get a more realistic gun than something that used to be one, so it’s very effective. At least, that’s the case for yours.”

“And yours is…?” Ren trails off but the other only grins at him and turns to the stairs.

They walk down in silence, Ren a little more worried about their mission now but hey, if Akechi was going to kill him he probably would’ve done it at least one of the times the two of them were alone.

Then again hiding a body in Mementos was the perfect crime…

Would his body even reappear in the real world?

It must, right?

“Joker,” Akechi snarls at him, “Please pay more attention,” he berates him before turning to examine his expression. He sighs and takes the magazine out of his pistol before handing it to him, “There, if that gives you any sort of comfort.”

Akechi walks down the stairs and lowers his voice so that they don’t alarm any nearby shadows, “I need your help, Joker. I wouldn’t put this much effort into trying to kill you, I’ve learned my lesson and know to strike immediately rather than overcomplicate a situation.”

“So… if you wanted to kill me, I’d already be dead?” Ren asks with a cocked eyebrow, “I guess that’s somewhat comforting… um,” He looks down at the magazine and gives it back to Akechi, “I trust you… well, the irrational part of me does, and I don’t want you to die because I was a coward that couldn’t deal with you and a loaded gun in one room. So take it.”

Akechi gives him a couple of seconds to rethink his words but when Ren doesn’t flinch or move away, he takes the magazine back and slides it back into his gun, “Good. Now let’s get back to it. I don’t want to be here longer than necessary.”

They move through Mementos quietly, sticking close to the walls and out of sight of the shadows. With Akechi’s help, movement through the area becomes so much easier for Ren. The Shadows never even realised they were there, and he somehow knew exactly in which direction to go rather than getting stuck in the maze that was the Metaverse. No wonder they could never tell he was in a palace with them back when they were enemies. Akechi knew exactly what he was doing.

When the path starts to twist and turn, they both know they’ve reached their designation. Akechi turns his head and looks to Joker, “We’ll have to weaken him since there’s no chance he’ll listen to us without a fight, but we don’t want to kill him. Treat this as you would any other Phantom Thief target but let me do the talking.”

Ren only replies in a hum, and the two walk through the portal, leading them to a dead end with a man in a suit standing there, looking down and smiling to himself while muttering something too incomprehensible for Ren to hear at this distance. The closer they get, the more the words start to make sense.

“Ha… they could never get rid of me… I’m the only man they have for the job… They don’t know what they’re talking about… maybe I need to show them just how much they need me.”

Akechi presses some kind of button on the side of his helmet, altering his voice and making it much deeper and distorted, “Ichiro Minami?” it immediately prompts the man to lift his head up, “You work with the Conspiracy, don’t you?”

“Heh…” The man grins widely, “And what could you possibly know about that? This is all top secret… I made sure of it!”

“You’re just their fall guy, Minami,” Akechi replies, “You know what happens with anyone who they don’t need anymore. You’re not important enough to keep alive.”

“So what? You’re the one they sent to kill? Here I thought maybe the Phantom Thieves would save me!”

“I’m the one trying to get you out of this mess,” he says and reaches out with his hand, “My men will help you change your identity and hide away while the Conspiracy is still in charge. You can trust them.”

“Aha… hahaha…. Hahahahahha!” The man starts to cackle, throwing his head back in amusement, “I’m not just some fall guy! You’re making this up! They could never get rid of me!”

The man’s body disappears into dark mist from which a black Shadow emerges wielding a sword with flames coming from it. Ren instinctively reaches for his mask, “Black Frost!” he shouts as he pulls it off.

“It’s Surt, he’s weak to ice!” Akechi informs him while reaching for his own mask, “Don’t use fire attacks! Loki!” He pulls off his own mask and his persona appears above him, “I’ll keep him distracted while you weaken him!” He runs in with his serrated sword raised while Loki copies him. The Shadow raises his sword and tries to strike Akechi, but Loki blocks it with his own.

Ren runs in with his persona summoned and commands it to attack the Shadow. Black Frost jumps up and encases the Shadow in ice. It breaks after a few seconds, but the Shadow slumps over, confused.

“Now!” Akechi shouts, his persona and Ren’s disappearing as he lunges at the Shadow with his sword. Ren follow him, slashing away with his dagger when attacking the Shadow while he’s down. It’s only once they’re both certain he won’t attack them any further that they stop their assault, but they keep their weapons pointed at him.

Surt dissolves into black mist shortly after, and the man emerges from the Shadows once more, hands raised, “Alright! You’re right! I’m useless to them… I was only fooling myself, I should’ve known I was nothing to them and they’d get rid of me once my work was done!”

“What exactly did you do?” Akechi asks, mask once again covering his eyes, “You worked on Project Isaac, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes!” The man replies, “They just made me deal with the paperwork involved with securing everything… I don’t know what they’re planning with it, just that they needed some scientists who wouldn’t talk! That’s all I know!”

Akechi sheathes his sword and walks to the man. He picks him up by the scruff of his jacket, “You must have _some_ knowledge about the Project, tell me!”

“They’re using the old lab! S-some old research papers t-too… from five years ago!” The man answers back in a frightened voice, “I-I thought you said you’d help me?! I told you everything I know!”

Akechi grunts before dropping the man, “I will. Don’t trust anyone working for Shido or Yamazuki, don’t leave your house until my men come get you, got it?”

“Y-yes!”

“Then we’re done here,” He turns around and walks out from the dead-end while the Shadow behind him disappears completely. Ren follows him only once he watched the man disappear, “Telling him anything more precise would have been pointless. This way he’ll at least feel wary and will be more likely to trust the people I work for,” he explains once he switches his voice back to normal.

“You brainwashed him,” Ren says quietly while Akechi stops in his tracks and starts to shuffle through his pockets for something.

“I told you I’d do that before we came here. And I didn’t brainwash him anymore than the Phantom Thieves changed people’s hearts; I left him open to suggestions,” Akechi corrects him, “It won’t stay around… or would you prefer we’d have let him die and put your life in danger as well? I believe this is still the best outcome for everyone involved.”

As nasty as the situation was, he had a point. Anything else may have risen suspicions and kidnapping the guy to save his life wasn’t exactly an option either if they planned to fake his death amidst all of this… and if Akechi was right, and the guy would forget about this after some time, it couldn’t have been all bad, right?

He’s taken out of his trance when Akechi grabs his arm, “We’re leaving.”

An item shines in his hand, and with the blink of an eye, they find themselves back at the entrance to the underground, “What now?” Ren asks.

“Now, you come back with me.”

“Huh?” Ren asks, “So… am I finally gonna find out who you’re working for?”

“Who you’re _both_ working for,” A tall woman corrects him as she approaches the two, heels clicking against the tiles in Mementos. Akechi tenses up, but doesn’t reach for any of his weapons, so Ren unmoving as he watches the woman walk to them, “Ren Amamiya, congratulations on your first mission. My men are already talking to Minami and writing his death certificate as we speak. This should be enough to convince Yamazuki where your loyalties lie,” She extends her gloved hand out from her white fur coat, “welcome to the Shadow Operatives.”


	9. Research

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should probably preface this by saying that from now on there might be minor royal spoilers... For now I don't plan to add anything major just I planned this story way before it came out and then I didn't expect it to impact me as much. For now it's mostly references to game mechanics but there might be stuff later on I'll include.

“So… who exactly are you?” Ren asks once they’re in the car on the way to Akechi’s and Kirijo’s office.

Since leaving the Metaverse, neither of them cared to explain anything, presumably due to the public setting, but even once they were in the car neither Akechi nor Kirijo spoke up.

“Have you heard of the Kirijo Group?” Kirijo asks him but he shakes his head, “That’s… impressive, actually. I suppose then all you need to know is that it is a company I run, however over recent years I’ve used the money it’s made to sponsor the Shadow Operatives, a secret section of the police department that specifically deals with shadows and activities related to the Metaverse.”

“That’s why you can just let him run around freely?” Ren asks, pointing to Akechi in the driver’s seat, “Actually… being part of the police explains a lot.”

Kirijo shakes her head, “We aren’t completely unchecked, but Akechi’s circumstances are particular, as I’m sure you already understand. That being said, he is still a prisoner of sorts.”

“By choice,” Akechi tells him, “It’s better than the alternative. The moment I reveal myself, I will be arrested and killed by Shido’s men in an underground interrogation room and no, the irony of such a fate is not lost on me.”

Kirijo scoffs, “The sole reason why it’s better than the alternative in your eyes is that you refuse to lose to Shido… but I should not be complaining,” she looks to Ren once again, “I apologise for keeping you in the dark for so long, but we needed to be certain you trusted Akechi enough before we revealed ourselves. You two have quite the history and since you would be working as partners I needed to know that the relationship wasn’t going to fall apart. If you didn’t trust him you simply would’ve left with no knowledge of our organisation and no one would believe you about the conspiracy or about Akechi being alive.”

“So you _were_ testing me?” Ren asks, looking over to Akechi who looks back at him through the car mirror.

“Not your abilities,” Akechi shakes his head, “Your will. I had to know that you didn’t resent me for what happened.”

“I’m not exactly completely over it…” Ren shakes his head, “But I can put the mission before my own feelings. I want Shido gone and paying for his crimes as much as you do, Akechi.”

Akechi smirks but doesn’t comment further on the matter, leaving them falling into silence once more, at least until Ren asks another question, “What do you mean by ‘partner’? I thought I’d be working for Yamazuki?”

“Yamazuki believes you have Akechi’s power,” Kirijo explains, “To the best of our knowledge, you don’t. Psychotic breakdowns aren’t deadly, and we will make sure that whoever Yamazuki targets won’t be able to harm anyone once they’re in that state… Faking a mental shutdown is much easier than a psychotic breakdown, so we’re allowing Akechi to use that power whenever Yamazuki will ask you to do it. As such, you need to communicate this to him at all times.”

Oh.

“Meaning I have to completely trust him to use that power for the greater good… and not screw me over,” Ren looks down at the floor of the car, “I can do that… as long as you promise me that no one dies.”

Akechi shakes his head, “I can’t promise that anymore… the best I can do is reassure you that everyone responsible will be held accountable for this, and I’ll do what I can to avoid unnecessary deaths.”

Ren looks out of the window and sighs.

Well, it was better than having Shido’s government run rampant.

* * *

When the elevator doors open, Ren expects to see high tech screens everywhere, dark rooms and everyone in suits using the latest and greatest technology, all based on his knowledge on secret spy organisations from watching Admission Possible too many times with Morgana back in high school. Instead, he’s somewhat disappointed.

Well, the tech was certainly new and probably cutting edge, and everyone _was_ wearing suits but it all looked so… normal.

Regular computers, files and desks just looking like a well-funded police department. Then again that’s exactly what this place was meant to be… but the reality check was still upsetting.

“Follow me.”

Ren snaps out of his daze when Akechi waves over to him and gets him to walk to an office with him. Akechi closes the door behind them. The former detective walks over to his desk and pulls out a file, which he then hands over to Ren, “This contains everything you need to know about our mission… it is also everything I know on the case. If you have any questions, let me know.”

Ren takes a seat across from Akechi’s desk to read the file, while the other takes a seat behind his desk and pulls out his phone. Ren opens the file and starts reading it carefully, not knowing when he'd have another opportunity to read the file.

He gets a clearer and clearer picture of what was expected of him as he flips through the pages; Shido was prime minister but functionally a puppet of the rest of the conspiracy that put him in power in the first place. Yamazuki was now one of the men pulling the strings, especially on the Metaverse side of things. Back when Akechi was still part of the conspiracy he knew that Shido was working on Project Isaac, something that would keep people in line during his run as prime minister, but he had a change of heart and Akechi disappeared before he could figure out what it was. In the last few months Akechi had been going to mementos due to increased mental shutdown cases and checking if the culprit would arrive, which is how he found out that Ren was using mementos himself and acting as a lone phantom thief.

“Well then, do you have any inquiries?” Akechi asks without looking away from his phone, still tapping away with both thumbs. Ren closes the file and cocks an eyebrow, then looks back down at the papers in front of him.

“I thought you were busy texting or emailing important people,” Ren explains but Akechi shakes his head.

“I’m playing Pokémon on an emulator,” he turns it off and puts it on his desk, “I wasn’t going to just watch you read for entertainment, and before you ask, no I don’t have anything more important to do at this time. My sole objective at this moment is to make sure you know all the details of this mission, which is why I gave you my file of findings to begin with.”

Ren puts the file down on Akechi’s desk with a sigh, “Honestly I’m more surprised you’d be interested in something like Pokémon.”

“How so?”

“I dunno, maybe you think it’s beneath you or something?”

Akechi chuckles genuinely, “It’s the largest franchise in the world, even _I_ don’t think that highly of myself. However if you’re talking about the intended audience... let’s just say I’m catching up on what a normal person my age got to experience in their childhood.”

“You never even played Pokémon?” Ren raises an eyebrow, “It’s older than you are.”

“I was raised by a single mother who was barely able to make enough money to sustain herself and the reminder of her past mistake,” Akechi replies in a much harsher tone, “She wasn’t going to spend what little money she made in the nightclub on something trivial like this, and my pathetic excuse for a father was never going to chip in for child support even if my mother had asked that of him. I don't think I need to mention that the orphanages and foster homes I bounced between never provided me with such luxury either.”

Silence follows Akechi’s words when the conversation turns sour, causing Ren to look away and try to figure out how to turn it back around. He’s lucky enough that Akechi’s the first one to speak up on the matter in a far calmer tone, “My playing a children’s game has nothing to do with the mission, and I shouldn’t have indulged you. Is there anything you’d like clarified from the dossier?”

“Maybe one thing...” Ren trails off, “But I don’t know if it has anything to do with the mission. It talks about your disappearance but never elaborates on what happened-.”

“You’re right, it has nothing to do with the mission,” Akechi quickly cuts him off, “believe me when I tell you I’m keeping my activities of the past three years a secret for your safety and peace of mind. Anything else? Regarding our current circumstances, that is.”

“You must have _some_ theories,” Ren starts off, “Wouldn’t be like you to wait for evidence before hypothesizing.”

Akechi’s grimace disappears, replaced with a laugh, once again a real one, “Calling me out so soon? You’re not wrong, I do have some ideas of course... however for the time being I’d rather not share them. When you go talk to Yamazuki as Kurusu Akira you should not have any knowledge of Project Isaac. I worry too much intel may cause you slip up. That being said, I will share them with you at the appropriate time. I suspect you will be getting a call from him in the next few days. As soon as you do, contact me and report back what he’s asked you to do next.”

“What about you?” Ren asks, watching as Akechi gets out of his chair and walks back to the door. Feeling like this was his way of suggesting it was time for him to leave, Ren stands up as well, “I also remember you’re not the type to sit around and wait patiently.”

“Yamazuki isn’t our only lead on bringing down the conspiracy,” Akechi informs him, “I’ll be pursuing those avenues while we wait for him to get in contact with you. Don’t worry, Ren, I won’t be bored while we’re apart.”

* * *

When he agreed to be a fake hitman for a politician, Ren expected the job to be somewhat demanding. After all, there were some days three years ago when even a kilo of make-up and 5 cups of Leblanc’s coffee weren’t enough to cover up the dark circles under Akechi’s eyes. However, even with the course work that started coming in as soon as the new term started, even when he was reading up on the current political situation or trying to hide his escapades from the rest of the former Phantom Thieves, he was still able to get in a few hours of sleep.

The politician himself was even reasonable enough to call him on a weekend for his first task, and not, as Ren had expected, in the middle of one of his classes for which he’d already come up with multiple excuses for having to leave for an urgent phone call. As soon as his phone starts vibrating across the dining table, Ren picks it up and presses it to his ear, “Sir?” He asks in a voice that makes him want to punch himself in the face, “How may I be of assistance?” He adjusts it, trying to mimic Akechi’s from all those years ago and only partially succeeding.

Why was it that he could to him listen talk for days about philosophical debates in that voice but when he tried it, he just wanted to remove his own vocal cords?

Maybe it was just cos Akechi was famous.

And kinda cute.

Maybe he didn’t sound so bad to others.

He hoped he didn’t.

“Kurusu, I have another request for you. However, I’d rather not discuss business over the phone like this so I would like to see you in my office tomorrow afternoon. Will that work for you?”

Ren knew better than to think it was an actual question, “Of course, sir. There is the issue of me stepping into the Diet building. There is security that would stop me from getting in, isn’t there?”

“There is,” Yamazuki confirms, “Which is why you won’t be entering from the front. There are ways of getting into the building without getting spotted, and I would hope your talents would allow you to reach my office without anyone calling security on you.”

Sneaking through a palace was no problem. Joker would use the shadows to his advantage, every corner was a potential hiding spot and when walking around wasn’t enough, he’d just shoot out his trusted grappling hook and swing over the unsuspecting enemies. The real world was nothing like this, even if he had his third eye.

“Of course, sir.”

“I’ll send you more details later today. Till tomorrow,” the man hangs up, and as soon as their conversation is over Ren dials the first number in his contacts. It only rings once before the other person answers.

“New job I take it?” Akechi asks from the other side, “I’ll send you the details of how to get into the Diet building later. We’ll need to set you up with a wire too, although Yamazuki is bound to check for the type that the regular police have access to.”

“How’d you-.”

“Shido didn’t like asking me to deal with more prominent targets by call,” Akechi quickly follows up, “The bastard also wouldn’t tell me how to get into the Diet building without the guards noticing so I had to figure it out myself. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you in such a predicament. I wouldn’t jeopardise our mission like that.”

“You don’t have faith in me?” Ren asks half-joking.

“I don’t want to take such an unnecessary risk when it can be avoided,” Akechi clarifies, unamused, “Regardless, I’ll pass the information to Kirijo. Come here an hour before your meeting and someone will help you sort everything out.”

“You won’t be there?”

“I’m on Mementos duty,” Akechi says, “You don’t need me to babysit you through something this simple, do I? Simply send me the information on the next target. The name and Yamazuki’s intention with regards to the target will do, and I will take care of the rest.”

It upset Ren that after finally getting the recognition he deserved for doing what they wanted him to do with little to no mistakes, the Shadow Ops just bench him. Akechi had promised him the excitement of his former life to return, not bureaucratic nonsense, “Can’t I come with you? I thought that’s what we agreed on?”

“We agreed on you helping us in this case, not for you to act recklessly,” Akechi snaps back, “but… I suppose I could tell Kirijo I’ll need the backup, and at the moment you and I are their most useful assets in the Metaverse. I’ll see what strings I can pull. However, if you get yourself killed in the process of getting your weekly adrenaline fix… I refuse to have your blood on my hands.”

Ren shakes his head even though the other doesn’t see it, “I’m not that easy to kill. You of all people should know that.”

“Unfortunately so. In which case, find me in Mementos tomorrow once you have finished your meeting. Don’t keep me waiting.”

* * *

With Akechi’s surprisingly helpful tips, including the idea he wears something a bit more professional than a hoodie and jeans, it doesn’t take long for Ren to sneak through the Diet building and reach Yamazuki’s office. He gently taps on the door and the politician instructs him to enter. He steps through and closes the door behind him.

The man looks him up and down from his desk from which he doesn’t bother standing up, “Kurusu, I’m impressed you managed to make it here,” he extends his hand out, “If you’d please hand over your phone. I’d rather this conversation not be overheard.”

Knowing the phone had nothing on it that wasn’t expected for a regular student, Akira gives his phone to his new boss, who puts it into a drawer. The man then stands up and directs the two of them to sit at two couches facing each other, “Do you know this was once the Prime Ministers office? Well, not that he needs it now, but considering that you knew about the double life of Akechi Goro, you may have also known this was where they conducted business.”

Calling Shido’s manipulation of his friend into killing him and who knows how many more may have been a bit of a stretch for the definition ‘conducting business’ but Akira knows better than to say his own thoughts on the matter out loud, “Considering I’m here to prove myself as Akechi’s better, would that suggest you are trying to prove that you’re better than our own prime minister?”

The politician chuckles surprisingly, and he waves his hand in the air dismissively, “no, no, I’m quite comfortable working where I am today, and I would not want that burden on my shoulders. You make an interesting point, however. You see, Akechi was only useful to us thanks to his unique abilities. Psychotic breakdowns weren’t the only thing we thought was unique to him. Supposedly he was able to summon two personas.”

Akira scoffs and rolls his eyes, “Pathetic. Two? He may have had the potential of a wildcard, but he clearly didn’t use it to the fullest extent. Only a true trickster knows how to wield multiple personas at once. He was a fake at best.”

The pretentiousness of his own voice made him want to volunteer himself for the guillotine next time he visited the Velvet Room. He knew Akechi would eventually listen to these recordings himself, and of course shit-talking him this much wasn’t going to win him any favours. It wasn’t like he enjoyed it anyway, even at the height of Akechi’s popularity he wasn’t comfortable with the comments Ryuji made… but Akechi was also the one who kept insisting how important this mission was.

At the end of the day, if it meant an end to Shido’s rule then Akechi would be completely fine with Akira making even the most derogatory comments about him.

“Interesting… I was not aware such power was possible…” Yamazuki trails off and making Akira realise just how little Akechi must’ve told Shido about Ren back in the day, “You see, we are undergoing some rather promising experiments regarding the cognitive world, and a power such as yours, or the understanding of it may be extremely useful to us. If you’re interested, I could get you acquainted.”

“I thought I made it clear how invested I am in the cause already,” Akira grins, “But yes, I would be happy to help out in whichever way I can.”

“Good,” Yamazuki nods, but again it doesn’t feel like a situation where he actually had the possibility to turn it down. Not that it mattered in this case- this was exactly what they were looking for, “I don’t believe they will need your assistance at the moment, so in the mean time I would like you to take care of some… nuisances. Make it quiet, I don’t want to hear about this in the media. Be sure to remember the names, I don’t want a paper trail of something like this, understood?” Akira nods and Yamazuki begins his list.

* * *

“Akechi?” Amada catches the other operative right before he leaves, “About your case... uh… well, there’s something Aigis uncovered that might be of some use to you,” He pulls out a piece of paper and hands it over to the other. Akechi quickly skims through it and looks up, unimpressed.

“I’m in a rush, Amada,” Akechi sighs, “If you’re going to shove an electric bill in my face I expect it to be significant, or at least alongside some other kind of information I can understand.”

“It’s the address,” Amada points to it, “I thought you might’ve recognised it cos… well… I guess that’s not a place you’d forget. Considering what happened to you there five years ago and all.”

“Details,” Akechi insists in an annoyed voice, “Please stop speaking in such vague terms. Clearly I don’t remember this address even if it is meant to have some significance… wait five years?” He snatches up the piece of paper and reads the paper again, “I… how is this possible?” Amada stays silent for too long, only pissing him off further, “Just give me the goddamn answer!”

“I don’t have one! All I know is Isshiki Wakaba's lab is being used again, even though there’s no official sign that anyone bought it out or reopened it… Who know who they’ve dragged into the Metaverse by now, or how many?”

Akechi looks over the paper again and again, trying to look for anything, any clue, any speck of evidence that could tell them what was going on, but even in this state he knew he wasn't going to find out anything just from this, "When did you find this? How long has this been going on for?!"

“Only today!” Amada insists, “But we looked and… well, they started using it again 3 years ago. All activity points to the lab being reopened November 20th 2016.”

Akechi throws the paper back in his direction and storms to the elevator, “Call Amamiya. Tell him to stay away from Mementos till further notice.”

“But I don't think Mitsuru will just let you-.”

“Did I fucking stutter?" Akechi snarls back, "I thought it was clear that I wasn't asking for any permission. I'm tired of waiting for her commands," he presses the elevator button a lot more roughly than it needed to be pressed and steps inside. As the elevator doors close, Kirijo herself walks over to one of her subordinates.

"He knows better than to start a mess now," she informs Amada, "I'll make sure he doesn't do anything too reckless myself, but trying to reign him in now is just going to further remind him of what they all did to him... what she did to him."


	10. Psychotic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny spoilers for p5r in this chapter. Also this is kind of my contribution for Goro day? I didn't have anything planned...

“I thought we told you not to come.”

They’re the first words he hears, and ones Joker knew were coming as soon as he walks through the lift doors of Mementos. He’s surprised however to find that the source of these words weren’t coming from Akechi but instead it was his boss that was eyeing him, scowling, “When you signed up for this, you decided to work for me, which means you follow my orders. Turn around and leave.”

Joker shakes his head, standing his ground despite having no idea what was going on, “I can handle myself. I’ve gone through this place on my own countless times before and whatever’s happening now isn’t going to stop me.”

“It’s not the shadows you should be worrying about,” Kirijo says as she strides over to stand between him and the stairs that led down into the abyss of mementos, “Any one of us can get strong enough to fight the shadows here, as long as they don’t become psychotic.”

“Psychotic...?” Joker trails off, “What the hell are you making him do?!”

“I’m not making him do anything!” Kirijo shouts back, “He’s trying to keep all of us out of his way, and I don’t know what he’s playing at... but if he’s going to be this reckless I’d rather just lose one wildcard, not two.”

Still with no ideas about what the hell was happening and why Akechi was doing any of what Kirijo was implying he was doing, Joker clenches one of his fist while reaching for his mask with the other, “Kirijo-san... I’m going to bring him back, one way or another. Either you can get out of my way, or I’ll have to do something I know I’ll regret later.”

With lightning speed, Kirijo pulls a gun out of her holster and puts it to her head. Joker doesn’t even have the chance to react at all before she pulls the trigger, “Artemisia!” She shouts, and her persona appears above her, swiftly using an ice spell to freeze Jokers legs to the floor, “I’m doing this for your own safety, Joker.”

Joker grunts as hell tries to move his legs in any way, but his body stays right where it is and he doesn’t move. When he’s unable to break out, he rips his mask off with a shout of his personas name, “Ishtar!”

As soon as the ice melts away, Joker once again reaches for the mask that’s reappeared on his face when Ishtar disappeared and takes it off once more, “Attis!” He shouts, assuming the other would have similar weaknesses to Yusuke and tries to burn her. She manages to dodge out of the way at the last second and pulls out her rapier, while Joker readies his dagger.

“I understand he’s your friend, but if you go in there unprepared-.”

“Do I look unprepared to you?” He asks her, reaching for his mask but not pulling it off just yet, “I’m not looking for a fight, I’m just looking for answers. I know him, I can talk to him.”

Kirijo looks to her gun, gritting her teeth, then back at Joker before sheathing her weapons, “Very well. However... if anything does happen to you, I won’t be holding it against him.”

“Yeah well... I don’t need anyone getting revenge for me anyway,” Joker sheathes his own dagger and walks past Kirijo, down into the abyss that was mementos.

Just as she had warned, the first floor was full of Shadows that looked way more powerful than the ones Joker was used to this high up, but thanks to Akechi teaching him how to sneak through the Metaverse completely unnoticed the last time they were here together, Joker manages to creep his way down onto the lower floors. The further down he goes, the more he notices the slowly decreasing number of shadows.

About halfway through his descent, he manages to run into another figure that wasn’t Akechi. He waits for the boy to turn off the engine of his car before speaking, “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s going on, would you?”

Jose looks ahead of the two of them and shakes his head, “Well... it’s a bit hard to figure out right now. The shadows here seem kinda scared, but there’s so few of them it’s hard to tell.”

“Have you seen Akechi at all?”

“Akechi? That one with the pointy mask?” Jose asks for clarification, “Yeah... but he just told me to get out of the way and said some words afterwards that I didn’t really understand.”

Jokers best guess, knowing Akechi, was a bunch of expletives he hoped Jose wouldn’t remember and wouldn’t repeat. Sure the kid was probably thousands of years old going by how weird everything about him was, but he was still a kid, “Wait so he’s on this floor?”

“He’s definitely here,” Jose nods, “I guess you’ll want me to stay out of the way but... Um... be careful, okay? I don’t like seeing you guys fight.”

Joker shakes his head, “I’m here to help him, not fight him, but thank you for the information,” with the knowledge of Akechi’s whereabouts finally given to him, Joker strides through the empty tunnels, following the sounds of grunting and metal hitting metal that he could only assume was Akechi.

He’s proved right when he finds the other in the middle of killing an Orobas, his serrated sword hitting the tracks beneath it when it disappears into thin air and Crow isn’t quick enough to stop it, “Kirijo told you to leave, didn’t she?” He snarls with his back to Joker.

“You know I’ve never been good at following orders,” Joker tries to start things off in a more lighthearted manner, “You’re venting your frustrations.”

“Ahahaha!” Crow cackles, “So _what_? Now you’re the detective? Don’t make me laugh. You don’t know shit about me, and I’m not going to make the mistake of telling you anything again.”

“You think telling me about yourself was a mistake?” Joker asks, still keeping a few feet of distance between the two of them, “Regardless of what ended up happening... I don’t think meeting you was a mistake, and I know you feel the same way,” Joker reaches up to his mask, but instead of summoning a persona, he removes it completely, “You must’ve had a reason for thinking that back then, right? And for getting me involved in this case again.”

Crow grips onto his sword tighter, “You’re a delusional idiot. Even you can’t be this much of a moron and not realise it’s the second time I’m using you. It’s pathetic, really.”

Joker shrugs, “If you were just using me you wouldn’t bother indulging me in this conversation, and even if you are... well I can’t say I’m not doing the same thing back.”

“So we’re both fools,” Crow concludes and finally turns around. He looks Joker up and down, then scoffs, “I hate you. You’re not particularly talented, you’re average looking and you don’t even have the money to make up for either of those things and yet you have everything in the world. A family, friends, an actual life... and all you do is try to throw it away in a place like this? It pisses me off just thinking about how someone could be so entitled.”

“Entitled? No,” Joker shakes his head, “I know just how lucky I am, and how grateful I am for it... I’m just an idiot who keeps looking for adventure, and you aren’t much better. You’re not doing this for the sake of justice or even for revenge anymore, are you?”

Crow huffs, “I’d enjoy watching Shido and the rest of that trash end up in jail or hung, preferably. What about that isn’t selfish to you?”

“I never said you weren’t being selfish,” Joker disagrees, “Well I guess in the end it doesn’t matter why you’re here. Are you still going to keep slashing through every shadow you come across or would you prefer we leave before the reaper gets here?”

“I can handle the reaper, and I told you not to come here.”

“Or, alternatively, I can make us both some coffee and you can... I don’t know, rip my pillows apart if you’re still feeling violent. I need new ones anyway,” Joker offers, and he waits patiently for Crow to respond, “I won’t ask why you came here alone, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“...fine then, since you clearly have no intention of letting me stay here... I’ll take you up on that offer.”

* * *

Unsurprisingly, Akechi stays silent even after Ren pours him his favorite blend and sits down across from him. He was lucky enough that Kirijo seemed to agree to have Akechi come over to his apartment, probably because Ren was the only one who managed to calm him down after whatever it was that set him off in the first place.

Not that anyone cared to disclose that information to him yet.

“I don’t need your pity,” Akechi finally spits out, glaring down at the coffee in front of him.

“Then it’s a good thing I don’t pity you,” Ren replies, taking a sip from his own cup, “You’re mistaking my respect for you as my partner.”

“Partner?”

“We teamed up for this, remember?” Ren asks and sets his mug down on his coffee table, “I intend to keep my promise, and I’m hoping you’ll honour yours this time.”

“Like you honoured the one you made to me three years ago?” Akechi finally looks up from his own cup of coffee, right into Ren’s eyes, “I know you’re hiding something, but even _I_ haven’t been able to figure out what. Why isn’t Shido in jail? Why didn’t the change of heart work?”

Ren shakes his head, “It did work... you said yourself that Shido is more like a puppet now than a ringleader. It’s the cognition of the public that hasn’t changed. They didn’t want to believe someone they trusted so much betrayed them... and apparently that was enough for them to forgive all the murders, psychotic breakdowns and every other rule in the book that he broke.”

“So the Phantom Thieves just stood by and watched?” Akechi cocks an eyebrow, intent on getting the information out of him, but Ren doesn’t let up.

He can’t.

Not about this.

“We tried to change the people’s cognition through Mementos but it failed. Eventually everyone got too busy to deal with Phantom Thief business which left only me,” Ren half-lies, and whether or not Akechi buys it <strike>and knowing him he probably doesn’t</strike>, he drops the subject all together, taking a sip of his coffee finally and crossing his legs as he leans back in his chair, “Your turn. I want to know what happened back there. Why didn’t you want me coming to Mementos?”

“I think you know the answer to that,” Akechi answers, closing his eyes, “I was angry and I needed to take it out on something but my current employer doesn’t appreciate gratuitous violence. You’re still useful to me, it would be a shame if I killed you this early on, especially over something as stupid as a temper tantrum.”

“Third murder attempt would be a bit much,” Ren agrees, “Why were you angry?”

“That’s... a longer story.”

“We have the time.”

Akechi opens his eyes again and rolls his head against the wall behind him enough to look at Ren, observing any changes in his expression, “I’ll correct myself; it’s not a _pleasant_ story.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way...” Ren trails off before stopping to reconsider his words. When Akechi gives him a look that indicates he wants him to continue, Ren keeps going, “Most of the stories relating to your life are pretty miserable. If I’m asking you to talk to me about it, I’m already assuming the worst.”

“...touché,” Akechi replies with a morbid chuckle, “Very well then. This afternoon Amada showed me that someone had been using Wakaba Isshiki’s lab since before I had even been... disposed of, in the eyes of the conspiracy anyway.”

“She was your first target, right?” Ren asks for clarification and Akechi shakes his head.

“She was the first person to die at my hands... but to me she was a little more than that,” Akechi continues, “I told you that everyone I disposed of deserved it and while I admit I may have had some, let’s call them issues, back then, what I said was true, and Wakaba was no exception. In order to understand the cognitive world as well as she did, she would have needed her own test subjects, and what better subject are there than undocumented orphans, _especially_ one so eager to get the attention of her employer?”

“She...” Ren trails off, considering the implications of his words, “She experimented on you? That’s how you first entered the Metaverse?”

“It’s how I first awakened to Robin Hood,” Akechi adds, “I believed that with a super power like that, I could be a hero of justice, change people’s cognition for the better... but Shido was only interested in corrupting the minds of the public, using the Metaverse for his own benefit. Once she started objecting to the experimentation, Shido managed to get one of the other scientists to turn me against her, kill her shadow in the cognitive world to teach her a lesson. I didn’t know at the time it would lead to her death... well you know where the rest of this story leads so I won’t continue.”

Silence falls over the two as Ren tries to come up with the right words, not wanting to press him much further but still wanting to uncover all of the truth, “how come you were surprised that it was running again? If Shido bought it out then-.”

“I trashed the place,” Akechi cuts him off, “I did what I could to burn everything then went into the cognitive world and made sure no one could report it being my fault. Shido and the police believed it was an accident and it worked out for him anyway, considering he didn’t want anyone else looking into my powers anyway. But... all that must’ve changed when he realized I was going to betray him, or at least, planned on getting a new puppet to control once he got into power and had me killed off. With a clear mind, I now realise that’s when Project Isaac must have begun.”

Trying to tread carefully around the topic, Ren gives his own insight on the matter, “I think we should look into the lab... but you shouldn’t be the one to see it.”

Akechi laughs and sets the cup of coffee down on the table, “I suppose my reaction from earlier warrants that. No, I’m not going back there unless absolutely necessary. I would be recognized immediately and the setting would only infuriate me and cloud my judgement. I know better than to act impulsively like that... in the real world when there’s real consequences to my actions, that is. I trust you to investigate the place thoroughly when Yamazuki eventually leads you there. Perhaps you should suggest that you want to improve your skills in the Metaverse, although I won’t push you to do that. Who knows what they’ll be hiding there after all?”

“Project Isaac probably,” Ren suggests but his phone begins to buzz. He pulls it out of his pocket and sees Makoto calling him, so he stands up, apologizes to Akechi and walks into the bedroom to take the phone call, “What’s up?”

“Hey Ren, I was wondering if I could come over tonight?” She asks from the other side, “Sae says she’s going to be working on a case from home and I have this project coming up so I don’t want us to get in each other’s way.”

Ren looks back through the door where he sees Akechi drinking his coffee, watching him and possibly listening to his conversation, so Ren turns back around, “Sorry, Mako... I actually have a friend over right now, and I don’t really know how long he’ll be here but he might just get in your way too.”

“I can always study in your bedroom?” Makoto offers, “Or is this a college thing?”

He desperately doesn’t want to lie to his girlfriend of all people, especially not about Akechi being the one visiting, but what the hell was that conversation going to look like?

Oh hey sweetie, actually you know that guy I maybe possibly had a thing for three years ago is here? Yeah, yeah, same guy who tried to kill me twice _I know_. Would be really problematic if you came here now and I don’t want to explain how I’m now actually working for the bad guys as a double agent like he once did, especially considering just how well that worked out for _him_. Anyway how’s life?

Nope. That was a fucking **terrible** idea, “yeah it’s a college thing. I missed some sociology classes cos I had to catch up on exam stuff after the thing at the charity gala, so he’s here to help me out with that. Maybe tomorrow? You still have two weeks for that, right?”

“I do, and if you’re really studying then I won’t get in your way...” Makoto trails off with a sigh, “Goodnight, Ren. Love you.”

“Night Mako, love you too,” he replies back and waits for her to hang up before returning to his living and Akechi’s smug grin.

“So I’m in your class now, am I?”

“Didn’t anyone tell you eavesdropping is rude?” Ren cocks an eyebrow, sitting back down across from him.

“No,” Akechi replies, “And even if they did, I’m a spy. It’s in my job description now. Deal with it.”

Ren rolls his eyes, but on the inside he’s content to have Akechi back to his sardonic self. At least it meant he’d gotten over what had happened earlier and they could once again focus on the task at hand, “Yamazuki only wants me to deal with some ‘nuisances’ as he called them,” Ren looks down at his phone and pops up the list he’d already sent to Akechi before. He slides his phone over in case the other hadn’t seen it yet, “He says he wants this done quietly. Have you ever had cases like this?”

Akechi shakes his head, “Shido believed anything and anyone could be used to further his goals. He made sure each of my cases was heard of everywhere. However, if anything this makes the Shadow Op’s job easier in this instance. I’ll pass this onto Kirijo in the morning.”

“You’re not going back there today?”

Akechi shakes his head, “I’d rather not… although my current living quarters are situated in that same building so it's unavoidable.”

“You could always stay here?” Ren offers, considering that he knew Makoto wouldn’t walk into his apartment today or tomorrow morning and everyone else would have to knock first before being let in, “If you even can… how does this thing work exactly?”

“Kirijo is my handler,” Akechi informs him, “I have to report to her by text every day and see her in person every three unless we previously established that I would be unable to see her for a given number of days due to our work. Since she has seen me today, I don’t think it will be much of an issue… that being said, are you quite sure you want to do that? You trust me staying here?”

“You said it yourself already; if you wanted to kill me, you’d have done it already,” Ren shrugs and goes to his bedroom. He gets a blanket and an extra pillow out from it, then walks back inside to dump them on the couch, “And you still need me for this, I’m guessing. I think I can survive one night with you in my apartment… unless you really are in a rush to face Kirijo’s wrath?”

Akechi chuckles and shakes his head, “no, not in the slightest. Thank you, Ren. I’ll take you up on that offer. Although I suppose if we’re getting this familiar, there’s no need for formalities, since I call you Ren already, you may call me Goro if you wish.”

“Alright,” Ren nods, “Goro it is.”

* * *

“How is he?” Yamazuki asks the lab assistant, observing their specimen, “Tell me he hasn’t tried killing another one.”

The lab assistant shakes his head and looks down at the notes he himself took during the trials, “He’s calmed down, although we have no idea how that will affect the Metaverse. We haven’t tried moving our trials there again since the last incident.”

“Good,” Yamazuki nods, “Let me know when you do, and I’ll be sure to keep Kurusu away. We can’t have our wildcard uncovering him this early on. Although… perhaps Kurusu would be able to teach our boy a trick or two,” when the lab assistant looks over to him questioningly, Yamazuki explains, “Kurusu claims he is able to wield multiple personas, more than two at a time. Even Akechi wasn’t able to do that when he was around-.”

Their specimen stirs in his sleep, grumbling a flurry of curse words. The lab assistant steps in to explain, “Mention of the former detective prince still induces certain reactions in him. Trials have shown positive signs of that reducing, specifically he only reacts to that name now, but it will still take some time to get rid of all reactions. I suggest we only start testing further in the Metaverse at least once those effects have subsided.”

“Very well, wouldn’t want all of this going to waste, considering how well he has been doing after all,” Yamazuki smirks and turns around, “Keep up the good work. I don’t think I have to remind you of what kinds of dangers your family would be in if you fail us.”

“Of course not, sir… I’m aware of what Kurusu is capable of now.”


	11. Revelations

“Good morning,” Ren is greeted as he enters his own kitchen and finds Goro already sitting at his dining table, reading today’s paper, “I had heard you woke quite late, but it’s almost midday. Should I be concerned?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Fraternising with the enemy?” He replies with a smirk, “All this waiting has bored me. Normally I’d use that time to train more or play chess with Aigis but she’s busy and-,” he pauses himself and sighs, “There’s little point in me lying any more, is there? In truth… I was lonely. I live in the same building as the office, Aigis and Ken are my only real human connection outside of my boss, ironic considering Aigis isn’t even one.”

Accepting that Goro was just going to continue sitting at his dining table and drinking coffee from his mug, Ren walks over to the kitchen and pulls out a mug for himself, “Yeah I’ve been going to meetings like you asked me to but honestly there’s nothing new to report on, just another list of names. I already passed them off to Kirijo. Any leftovers for me?” He asks before he even picks up the pot.

“Yes, though I can’t promise it’s any good,” Goro insists, setting the paper down on the table, “There’s nothing new at the office either. Aigis and Ken are busy going through the paperwork I copied from one of the conspiracies subordinates a month ago but unfortunately most of it appears to be about regular legislation and inner workings of the government.”

Ren pulls a mug out of one of his cupboards and begins pouring himself a cup, “Sounds hella illegal to be going through documents like that.”

“It _is_ hella illegal,” Goro agrees with him, “Why do you think they had the criminal get it? That being said, they already requested these files from them and the deadline for sending them has passed with no documents to be seen anywhere. I simply sped up the process for when they eventually do send them in by court order. If anyone asks how we managed to get through them so quickly, we’ll simply point to Aigis and say we had her read through all of them and since they have no idea what her capabilities are they won’t question it.”

“And here I thought teenage detective you was horrifying,” Ren smirks and sits down across from Goro, “With regards to you solving cases.”

Goro merely shrugs at the remark and finishes off his coffee, “It was easy enough when everyone underestimated me simply because I wasn’t an adult. It’s not so different now that everyone believes I’m dead,” he pulls his phone out of his pocket to check the time and groans when he notices how late it is, “I should be getting back. Kirijo has me also looking through these files as punishment for my actions in Mementos. She knows how much I despise desk work. I suppose then I’ll be seeing you around. It’s hard to tell when we’ll have another major breakthrough,” he stands up, picks up his empty cup and carries it over to the sink before turning towards the door, “Good day, Ren.”

* * *

As much as Ren honestly enjoyed living in LeBlanc, there was some charm to being able to live in his own apartment. For starters, he was fairly certain some god, potentially one he’d already met, sent him this wonderful place that he was able to afford with both his part time jobs and his savings of phantom thievery, and still have enough money left over to buy food and other such things.

What this place had over LeBlanc, however, was the freedom it provided. LeBlanc felt more like home than his real house ever did, but... it was also a prison in and of itself. Sure, Sojiro eventually let him do pretty much what he wanted to, but it was always going to remind him of how he had to be there thanks to his probation.

It would always remind him that he was forever branded a criminal.

The best part about living alone?

Having guests over without having to ask anyone if they could stay there. It had to be right there at the top.

This, especially now, included Goro, who had decided slowly over time that instead of drinking the franchise coffee down the street from the Shadow Ops, he could come here and get his own premium blend that Ren was willing to work on and perfect to uncover which one he loved best.

Even if it did take him alienating his other friends a little in the morning considering that the discovery that the second detective prince was not only alive but hanging out with one of his worst enemies should be left unrevealed for as long as Goro was dead to the public.

At least, that was certainly the plan.

But things rarely went according to plan.

Not Ren’s plan anyway.

“What... the fuck is he doing here?!”

Goro, poised as ever when he's presented himself to anyone but Ren in the real world, barely takes his eyes off his book as he glances to the door, coffee in hand, “I see many things have changed here since I’ve left. I never thought your sister would appreciate such language you know.”

“Wh- no!” Makoto exclaims, closing the door behind her, “You don’t get a say in this,” she points to Goro, then turns to Ren, “why is Goro Akechi in your apartment? Alive? And not trying to kill you!?”

“Um...” is the best that Ren can muster. In the meantime, in order to avoid this car wreck of a situation, Goro downs the rest of his coffee and leaves the dirty cup behind.

“I’ll be taking my leave then. Niijima, I’ll allow him to explain but for your own safety I recommend you keep my own presence here a secret,” Goro closes his book and grabs his suit jacket off the chair, “Oh perhaps I should clarify that to make it sound less threatening; I don’t work for Shido anymore, but I do work for very powerful people with deep pockets who will try to silence you should you spread the word of my being here. Good day,” he leaves with a smile as if nothing had happened, forcing Ren to explain it all on his own.

And judging by how careful Goro had been up till now, he knew this was on him to explain. Goro practically knew his and his friends' schedules off by heart so he would know this wasn't a day when anyone would show up to his apartment, especially not in the morning. Why was Makoto even here to begin with? Wait no that doesn’t matter, she’s here and she’s pissed.

“I’m working for the police.”

“You hate the police,” Makoto points out, “And Akechi is a criminal. He tried to kill you twice!”

“I’m mostly over it,” Ren shrugs, “But that’s not why. It’s... well, it’s kind of about Shido. I can’t get into details, but we’re working together to show everyone what his government really is.”

“We tried that!” Makoto argues back, “For years we tried that but nothing changed! You’re the only one who’s still obsessed with this, still wants to prove that the world needs the phantom thieves, and you really think working with Goro Akechi is the way to do that?”

“Honestly?” Ren asks, “Yeah, he’s actually been far more supportive of my actions than any of you or the others have.”

“He’s using you!” Makoto shouts, “he’s just going to kill you once he doesn’t need you!”

“Ha!” Ren laughs sarcastically, “Yeah because the last two times worked out great for him. Maybe he will try to kill me, maybe he won’t. But right now what I’ve been doing has made me feel more alive than I have in the last 3 years combined. For the first time since Shido’s palace I actually feel like I’m making a difference here, and if in the end I get betrayed again, I can say now that it’ll all be worth it.”

“I honestly hope so,” Makoto says, turning around back to face the door, “maybe one day you’ll realise that we all have to return to the real world. Let me know when that happens... because until then, I don’t want to be the person who has to worry whether she finds her boyfriend or his corpse next time she opens the door.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Makoto closes her eyes, inhales deeply, and lets it all out before replying, “It means I’ll be coming back sometime next week to collect my things. It means that I’m done trying to convince you to come back to the real world. Goodbye, Ren,” she reaches for the handle and leaves before he can convince her otherwise.

Just as he’s about to run after her, his phone buzzes. He’s tempted to ignore it, but he knows all too well how much of a mistake that could be. He pulls it out to check it wasn’t just spam and frowns when he uncovers that it is important.

> **‘Meet me at this location at 17:00’**

The link provided tells him to go to a location he’d certainly heard of before but wasn’t too familiar with. It was just outside the city, so he had to leave early, but there was no way his argument with Makoto wouldn’t drag out for hours, so either he was running after her or going to work.

Of course, apologising to Makoto also meant stopping all of this and screwing Goro and the rest of the Shadow Ops, as well as possibly the country, in the process. There was no doubt that if he backed out now, Yamazuki’s secret assassin would have him murdered and would realise he was cooperating with some kid of secret force intent on stopping him and the rest of the conspiracy.

There was only really one realistic option for him now, even if it meant destroying any hope of regaining his relationship.

* * *

“I heard you were in town,” Goro grins as he pulls up a chair at the bar and takes a seat. He preferred sitting somewhere in the back where he was least likely to be recognized or interrupted in the evenings when he wished to sit back, drink and relax while ignoring the world around him. Tonight was a different case when he noticed a familiar face that he believed to be on the other side of the country until recently, “Any intriguing case has you coming over here?”

The other detective prince picks up her beer and watches it swirl in its bottle, “You know I can’t share that information,” she doesn’t even turn to him and instead drinks her beer. Goro orders his own drink before answering.

“That I do,” Goro confirms, “However, I wasn’t your successor for no reason. Kirijo brought you here to aid in the investigation, you’re working the other angle, correct?” Naoto doesn’t confirm his suspicions or deny them, so he keeps going, “She knows I’m far too close to this, she’s benching me, so she needs someone else with the skillset to do this. It would be far too great of a coincidence to find you here if that weren’t the case.”

“You think I know Kirijo?”

“I know she has a file on you,” Goro thanks the bartender for his drink once he receives it and only continues speaking once he starts taking orders from other customers, “It’s more personal than the files she keeps on her other employees so I must assume you had previous encounters. That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?”

Naoto shakes her head, “Partially, yes, Kirijo didn’t want you to find out due to the possibility of you once again raging in the metaverse. I can count on you not to do that, yes? And for your cooperation?”

“My cooperation?” Goro asks, considering how much this throws him off-guard. He was certain Kirijo did this exactly because she wanted to keep him away from the investigation, and yet Naoto wanted his help, “I’m not sure I follow.”

“I was looking for you this morning to ask you some questions, and Ken told me he saw you in a nearby café,” Naoto says, “By the time I got there you were gone, but then Ken had informed me you had been somewhere else all along.”

Goro cocks his eyebrow, “Ken made a mistake, what of it?”

“Kirijo informed me you started seeing Amamiya more often,” Naoto continues her explanation, “I found his address and indeed watched as you left his apartment to go to work a few days ago. That same day, I went to the café and asked if someone looking like you had ordered coffee from there in the morning. A barista was able to confirm that a man that reminded her of the missing Detective Prince did come by that morning.”

“So I have a lookalike,” Goro says, “Or someone who wishes they were me. I was an idol at the top of my popularity, it’s not impossible. Unless you believe that something else is occurring?”

“I know that you don’t believe in coincidences,” Naoto replies and takes another drink from her beer, “I’ll leave you to decide what to do with this information. What I’m wondering is what has you coming to speak with me of your volition?”

“You’re one of the few detectives I hold any real respect for,” Goro begins his explanation, definitely avoiding the topic of how his fascination with her was partly an inspiration to his plan from years ago and that was the real reason why he trusted her judgement, “You make sure to know all the available details of the case before you start working on it, so I’m wondering if there’s maybe some details I missed that you found. Perhaps you can indulge me and explain the case how you understand it, share with me anything I may be missing.”

“I have my own observations that differ from your report,” Naoto agrees, “however, I won’t do this for free. In exchange, I’d like some intel for myself.”

“Name your price.”

“The last three years,” Naoto finally looks his way, right into his eyes, “How did you manage to come back from the dead?”

* * *

“Kurusu!” Yamazuki exclaims with a large smile as he sees the student walk towards him, “I’m glad you could make it. First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on your progress so far. You have been serving your country well.”

“Thank you, sir,” Akira bows his head politely, “Is there another task you wish for me to fulfil in here? I’m afraid my skills are best used in the metaverse, they don’t translate well to the real world,” he desperately hopes that’s enough to convince him. Goro was the one who was supposed to be taking care of things on this end, not him. Did Yamazuki need him to prove his loyalty?

Thankfully, the older man shakes his head and puts a hand on his back to lead him towards the entrance of the building, “Nothing of the sort… although I suppose this is a task of sorts but nothing like what we asked you to do. You see, there’s only so much we can accomplish with you. Your efforts have been helpful, of course, but you are just one person. Even before you came along we had been wondering how exactly to replace Goro Akechi, perhaps expand on his powers, and as such we have been… experimenting with the possibilities.”

“Experimenting, sir?” Akira asks for clarification, “Did other persona users come to help you?”

Yamazuki chuckles and shakes his head, “Persona users aren’t just lining up on the street begging to work for the government. No, we used a method similar to one of our late employee, Wakaba Ishiiki. You see, if we couldn’t find anyone with a persona, why not create a persona within someone?” He swipes a keycard at the door and leads Akira inside, “Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. It seems that Ishiiki was rather lucky that Akechi not only had the potential but actually survived the process as well. We haven’t had this much luck, but our latest subject has been rather promising.”

“Subject?” Akira asks in hopes of getting more dirt on the conspiracy, “Akechi… he couldn’t have been an adult at the time. The mental shutdowns started when he was… 15, I believe? Who are these subjects?”

“That’s confidential,” Yamazuki stops his line of questioning altogether, but he’s fairly certain a short conversation with Goro should clear everything up, “In any case, after years of perfecting this, I believe we’ve been able to not only create a persona within another person, but we were also able to ensure the loyalty of this person. As a matter of fact, we already did the first few test runs this week! Would you like to see?”

* * *

Silence falls over the two detectives when Goro finishes his story, then downs his drink. He patiently waits for her to process this information and ask him any further questions, but she puts it aside for now, “Alright, a promise is a promise after all. You’re interested in Shido’s conspiracy, right? Well, here’s what I’ve been able to find:

“The killings have only been a cover for something bigger,” Naoto begins, “Political assassinations happen, people randomly go missing with nowhere to be found, regularly, people would question a rise in all of these occurrences, and yet they're remaining ignorant. They used the public’s ignorance to cover up something much bigger, but you already know that and that’s why you have your friend investigating them too, working that angle, right?”

“You’re talking about Project Isaac?” Goro asks her, “I’ve been trying to figure out what it is with no luck. The closest we’ve gotten is Wakaba Ishiiki’s lab but the others won’t let me investigate that angle for obvious reasons.”

“You should,” Naoto insists, “You’re the only one who knows what went down back then considering everyone else is dead, brainwashed or part of the problem to begin with. Shido’s government has done appalling things, and yet everyone is happy with it. Even his biggest adversaries are now his greatest supporters. That’s not what a change of heart has done in the past, or a mental shutdown. It’s something else.”

“Something else is changing cognition?” Goro thinks out loud, “There’s someone out there who’s brainwashing people into believing that Shido is doing what’s right for them… someone with access to the metaverse, to Mementos, someone with the power to control someone’s heart?”

“Weren’t you the one causing all of those psychotic breakdown incidents three years ago?” Naoto inquires in an attempt to prompt any other conclusions Goro was coming to.

“It’s different. I was never able to actually control what they were doing,” Goro scratches at his head, trying to get to the itch in his mind that had all of the answers. It was there, it had to be, “Loki’s power… it’s special, it allows me to release the change on one's own heart, essentially removing one's impulse control. I can’t force someone to do something that they themselves never thought of and stopped themselves from doing. If a person never wanted to kill someone, I couldn’t use my power and convince them to do it.”

“But someone can,” Naoto continues, “Someone is making others believe things they never would on their own. Someone else is able to control those chains.”

“Only Wakaba Ishiiki could figure out something like that, and Shido made sure she could never share her research.”

“And who got that research?” Naoto cocks an eyebrow, “Who used that research to further your powers? Who manipulated you, made you do things you didn’t want to?”

* * *

Yamazuki leads him through a few more doors, choosing to remain silent as he shows Akira around the place. So far all of it just looked like the generic stuff he’d find on some CSI show, or something else with science advanced way beyond what today’s scientists were capable of today. The final room they come across sounds like the one of most interest to him, the one labelled ‘ISAAC’ in big bold letters. Yamazuki again swipes a keycard and the doors slide open to let them in.

“He must be quite tired after today,” Yamazuki tells the scientists inside, “I doubt you’ll be able to speak with him but over the coming days I’m hoping you can be somewhat of a mentor to him. You see, he has the right powers but unfortunately, they aren’t quite as fine tuned as we’d like them to be. Some work well beyond our expectations… others less so.”

As the scientists move out of the way, Akira gets a clearer picture of what exactly he was looking at. The man was sleeping in a bed, oblivious to what was happening but… this shouldn’t even be possible, right? There’s no way he would be here, behind some locked doors and under constant supervision. It just wasn’t possible.

* * *

Naoto looks up to the TV hanging above them as she waits for Goro to process all of the information he’d just received from her. She knew it would take him a little bit to fully understand her own conclusions, but she needed him to figure it out on his own. Convincing him was bound to be a waste of time if he didn’t believe it at first.

The images on the screen intrigue her and she asks the bartender to turn the TV volume up. With a begrudging nod, the bartender reaches for the remote and turns it up enough for her to hear a bit more without having it on at full blast.

“-wow! A truly amazing story! And you managed to take down all of these criminals by yourself? Were you not afraid? I know I would be!” The show hostess laughs while the other host smiles kindly at their guests.

“I certainly did fear for my life at times,” The guest agrees, “But I know I had a greater duty to fulfil for this country.”

Goro briefly looks up at the TV, then rolls his eyes and looks at Naoto, “I thought you hated watching me on TV, what has you intrigued now? It’s just some rerun, most likely something along the lines of ‘idols that have been lost to time’.”

“Your terrible fashion sense amuses me,” Naoto shakes her head, “I knew you wore terrible clothing in your free time but I thought you were at least somewhat better when making a public appearance. White doesn’t look good on you.”

“White?” Goro asks and lifts his head, now paying more attention to the interview. She was right, he was wearing a white suit and a dark shirt and tie underneath but… he didn’t own clothes like that. He always went to interviews in his regular school uniform.

That wasn’t him, it couldn’t be.

But… it _was_ him.

The Goro on screen smiles and laughs along with the audience at whatever joke the hosts just made, but after a few seconds, his expression becomes more serious again, “I understand my absence may have been concerning to many, but it was necessary. You see, I went undercover so long for more than just my country… these men, they wanted to harm the prime minister… they wanted to harm my own father, and I couldn’t allow them to do that. I could not let them know that secret. I couldn’t let the traitors know about our familial connection.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I finally managed to update! I'm on holiday now and I'm really hoping that means I can finish this fic within the next two months before I get back to studying again. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


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